They were
beginning to abandon all hope of a rescue, when a sail was suddenly
discovered; and as soon as the necessary flags could be found, the
same signal which attracted us was displayed. The vessel, now quite
close to them, proved to be a large American steamer, but she merely
hoisted her own ensign and code-pennant, and then coolly steamed away
to the southward. 'I think that captain deserved tarring and
feathering, anyway,' one of the men said to me. Another observed, 'I
wonder what will become of that man; for we had put all our lives in
his hand by signalling as we did; and every seaman knows that right
well.' Another said, 'When we saw that ship go away, we all gave in
and lay down in despair to die. But our captain, who is very good to
his crew, and a religious man too, said, "There is One above who looks
after us all." That was true enough, for, about ten minutes
afterwards, as I was talking to the cook, and telling him it was all
over with us, I saw a sail to leeward, and informed the captain. We
bore down a little, but did not like to go out of our course too much,
fearing you might be a "Portuguese," and play us the same trick as the
American.' (They could not understand our white ensign; for, our
funnel being stowed, we looked like a sailing vessel, while all
gunboats of our size are steamers.
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