Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/178

 a signal. This I repeated again and again; but he would not bring to, and when it was dark, I lost sight of him, and saw him no more until we met at Gibraltar.

Next morning I fell in with three Spanish fishing-boats. They took me for a French privateer, pulled up their lines, and made sail. I came up with them, and, firing a gun, they hove to and surrendered. I ordered them alongside; and, finding they had each a keg of wine on board, I condemned that part of their cargo as contraband; but I honestly offered payment for what I had taken. This they declined, finding I was "Ingles," too happy to think they were not in the hands of the French. I then gave each of them a pound of tobacco, which not only satisfied them, but confirmed them in the newly received opinion among their countrymen, that England was the bravest as well as the most generous of nations. They offered every thing their boat contained; but I declined all most nobly, because I had