Page:Wonderful adventures of sixteen British seamen.pdf/7

7 the view of procuring from him information respecting the state of the eoastcoast [sic]; and they had an eyoeye [sic] also to his fishing apparatus, as well as to the benefit of his superior skill in the art of using it, for by this time they were sorely pressed by thothe [sic] eommoncommon [sic] wants of our nature. By the Indian they were informed that the coast was elearclear [sic] of king’s ships—that an armed merehantmanmerchantman [sic] from Old Spain had arrived at ArieaArica [sic] (a fortified town still in the hands of the royalists) a few days before, and that she was lying under the proteetionprotection [sic] of the fort, ready to discharge a valuablovaluable [sic] eargocargo [sic]. Their disappointment at having missed the opportunity of falling in with so rich a prize, in consequence of useless, and in other respects hurtful delays, was extreme, for they entertained no doubt whatever, that, had they been down in time, as they would have been but for these delays, the Minerva would have been the reward of all their privations. Disappointment is not a feeling that arises in the mind, and then instantaneously passes away; it recurs again and again, to vex the spirit, and to rouse its energies to redeem the mistaken or neglected step by which it has been troubled. With the crew of the drugger-boat it operated with instantaneous effect, and they were at the same time stimulated, by the severe presure of existing neeessitiesnecessities [sic], to form the desperate resolution of attempting the eapturocapture [sic] of the Minerva. But then, on farther interrogation, the Indian added, that besides being armed with five and twenty guns, and lying, as the vessel did, within musket shot of a strong battery, she had received on board, in addition to a numerous crew, upwards of 250 Spainish soldiers, for the cspeeialespecial [sic] purposopurpose [sic] of protecting her from any piratical or predal attack. These were difficulties which to the ordinary run of mortals,