Page:Intrepid & daring adventures of sixteen British seamen.pdf/15

15 what had happened, as no other vessel was in sight, saw the MincrvaMinerva [sic] bearing briskly down toward Moro-Blanco, a promontory on the  side of the bay, several miles distant from Arica. With the strong military force on board, could not persuade themselves that there  a possibility of hcrher [sic] having been taken by an enemy. ThcThe [sic] most natural conclusion was, the soldiers themsclvesthemselves [sic] had made a joint  of her. The alarm was immediately in the fort, and throughout Arica; and in  than half an hour the harbour and beach  crowded with soldiers and sailors ready to  in pursuit of the fugitive ship, in the hope, as the morning advanced, the brcezcbreeze [sic] would  away. The MincrvaMinerva [sic] had just rounded the unt point of Moro-Blanco, when, as the had anticipated, it became a dead calm, and c once more lay like a log upon the water. ere, then, wercwere [sic] the captors again in a situation much better than that from which they had o recently escaped. They were not to be, however, by this fresh difficulty, but the Spaniards on deck, by two at a time,  pinioned them, and shipped them on board e drugger, the ship’s launch, and small boats,  only the smallest one for their own use. accomplished, they pointed the guns the boats, ordering the Spaniards on shore,  small number of rowers remained unbound, and  to blow them out of the water on the  indication of a disposition to disobey. They now took a snatch of refreshment, to their empty stomachs and exhausted