Page:Paine--Lost ships and lonely seas.djvu/256

218 "Oh, damn your huzzas! We took you to be something else."

The Polly had fallen in with the Spanish fleet that same morning, as it turned out, and had been chased all day, wherefore the frigate stood by her until they had run clear of danger. It was the courtesy of the sea, but Lieutenant Archer was unconsoled and he fretfully jotted down in writing to his mother:

"There I was, from being worth thousands in imagination, reduced to the old four and sixpence a day. The little doctor won the most prize money of us all, for the bag contained between thirty and forty dollars."

After almost running ashore in a thick night and clawing off by good seamanship, the Phoenix ran over to Jamaica for fresh water, and then sailed in company with two other frigates. The verdant mountains of that lovely island were still visible when the sky became overcast. By eleven o'clock that night, "it began to snuffle, with a monstrous heavy appearance from the eastward." Sir Hyde Parker sent for Lieutenant Archer, who was his navigating officer, and exclaimed:

"What sort of weather have we? It blows a little and has a very ugly look. If in any other