Voyage of the Liberdade

rder-Four against one-Two go dow

that I fain would forget, but that will not be possible. Between the hours of 11 and 12

had discharged him. It was there the villain shipped with me, in lieu of one of the Rosario gang who had been kindly taken in charge by the guard at Ilha Grande and brought to Rio to be tried before the American Consul for insubordination. Said he, one day when I urged him to make haste and help save the topsails in a squall, "Oh, I'm no soft-horn to be hurried!" It was the time the bark lost her topgallant-mast and was cast on her beam-ends on the voyage to Antonina, already told; it was, in fact, no time for loafing, and this braggart at a

r robbing, and cutting a ranchman's throat from ear to ear. These

tain Roberts, of Baltimore, a quiet gentleman, with no evil in hi

er, the other a little Japanese sailor, a bright, young chap-had been robbed and beaten by the four ruffians, and then threatened so that they deserted to the forest instead of brin

as the conduct of his chum, who was sober, but in a very unusual, high, gleeful mood. It was knock-off time when I came along to where he was seizing off the mizzen topgallant backstay, the last of the work of refitting the late pampeiro damage; and the mate being elsewhere engaged, I gave the usual order to quit work. "Knock off," I said to the man, "and put away your tools. The bark's rigging looks

as usual, forgetting the unpleasant episode as soon as my head touched the pillow; but my wife, with finer instincts, kept awake. It was well for us all that she did so. Near midnight, my wife, who had heard the first footstep on the poop-deck, quietly wakened me

ve been drea

n deck by the forward companionway; they are waiting there, I a

ming, thought I, there can b

ours, except a call to relieve sickness, or for some other

e in the forward part of the ship where they (the sailors) are supposed to be found after

n the magazine, I stepped on deck abaft instead of forward, where evidently I had been expected. I stood rubbing my eyes for a moment, inuring them to the intense darkness, when a coarse voice roared down the forward companionway to me to co

ss than say: "Go

kesman, as with an oath, he bound

one. I dealt him a blow as he came near, sufficient I thought, to fell an ox; but it had, apparently, no effect, and instantly he was inside of my guard. Then grasping me by the throat,

re than a match for brute force, for I then knew that not only my own life but also the lives of others depended on me at this moment. Nothing daunted, the rest came on, l

he fell with the deadly knife in his hand. I was now all right. The dread of cold steel had left me when I freed myself from the first would-be assassin, and I only wondered how many more would persist in trying to take my life. But recoll

however, for order was now restored, though two

own I was not to be spared. Then desperation took the place of fear, and I felt more than a match for all that could

nce more master of my bark, the remaining two came aft again, at

o have the calamity averted, or, in other words, to have

sue; this I resolutely followed. A man will defend himself

tial evidence came up in abundance to make the case perfectly clear to the authorities. There are few who will care to hear more about a subject so abhorrent to all, and I care less to write about it. I would not have said this much, but for the enterprise of a rising department clerk, who, seeing the importance of telling to the world what

ce and not for my money t

counter such as those who came from the ja

to my bark, and a Spanish sailing-master was engaged to t

ampeiro had been repaired, new topgallant-masts rigged, and all made ataunto. I saw my handsome bark well clear of the dangers of the harbour limits, then in sorro