160 THE CRATER; coming hither. The ship is of some size, and appears to be armed ; though I cannot make out her nation." " It is not surprising that she should be armed, Mark. You know that the papers Captain Saunders brought us were filled with accounts of battles fought in Europe." " It is very true that the whole world is in arms, though that does not explain the singular appearance of these three vessels, in this remote corner of the earth. It is possible they may be discovery ships, for wars do not al ways put a stop to such enterprises. They appear to be steering for the Peak, which is some proof that they do not know of the existence of the settlements in the group. There they might anchor ; but here, they cannot without entering the cove, of which they can know nothing." " If discovery vessels, would they not naturally come first to the Peak, as the most striking object?" " In that you are probably right, Bridget, though I think the commodore would be apt to divide his force, having three ships, and send one, at least, towards the group, even if he came hither with the others. No nation but Eng land, however, would be likely to have vessels of that cha racter out, in such a war, and these do not look like Eng lish craft, at all. Besides, we should have heard something of such an expedition, by means of the papers, were there one out. It would be bad enough to be visited by explor ers; yet, I fear these are worse than explorers." Bridget very well understood her husband s apprehen sions on the subject of exploring parties. As yet, the colony had got on very well, without having the question of nationality called into the account ; but it had now be come so far important, as, in a small way, to be a nursery for seamen ; and there was much reason to fear that the ruthless policy of the strong would, in the event of a dis covery, make it share the usual fortunes of the weak. It was on account of this dread of foreign interference., that so much pains had been taken to conceal the history and state of the little community, the strongest inducements being placed before all the seamen who went to Europe, to be discreet and silent. As for the Kannakas, they did not know enough to be very dangerous, and could not, at all, give any accurate idea of the position of the islands, had
