Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/424

 184 THE CRATER; things then threatened, these plantations were not on the main channel, but stood along the margin of a passage which was deep enough to receive any craft that floated, but which was a cul-de-sac, that could be entered only from the eastward. Along the margin of the ship-channel, there was not yet soil of the right quality for cultivation, though it was slowly forming, as the sands that lay thick on the adjacent rocks received other substances by exposure to the atmosphere. The Anne and her consorts had been anchored about an hour, when the strangers hove-to in the roads, distant about half a mile from the battery. Here they all hoisted white flags, as if desirous of having a parley. r fhe governor did not well know how to act. He could not tell whether or not it would do to trust such men ; and he as little liked to place Betts, or any other confidential friend, in their power, as he did to place himself there. Nevertheless, prudence required that some notice should be taken of the flag of truce ; and he determined to go off a short distance from the shore in one of his own boats, and hoist a white flag, which would be as much as to say that he was waiting there to receive any communication that the strangers might chose to send him. It was not long after the governor s boat had reached her station, which was fairly within the short range of the two guns in the battery, ere a boat shoved off from the ship, showing the white flag, too. In a few minutes, the two boats were within the lengths of each other s oars, riding peacefully side by side. On board the stranger s boat, in addition to the six men who were at the oars, were three persons in the stern- sheets. One of these men, as was afterwards ascertained, was the admiral himself; a second was an interpreter, who spoke English with a foreign accent, but otherwise per fectly well ; arid the third was no other than Waally ! The governor thought a fierce satisfaction was gleaming in the countenance of the savage when they met, though the lat ter said nothing. The interpreter opened the communi cations. &quot; Is any one in that boat,&quot; demanded this person, &quot; who is empowered to speak for the authorities ashore?&quot;