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the view of procuring from him information respecting the state of the eoast; and they had an eyo 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 tho eommon wants of our nature. By the Indian they were informed that the coast was elear of king’s ships—that an armed merehantman from Old Spain had arrived at Ariea (a fortified town still in the hands of the royalists) a few days before, and that she was lying under the proteetion of the fort, ready to discharge a valuablo eargo. 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 neeessities, to form the desperate resolution of attempting the eapturo 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 cspeeial purposo of protecting her from any piratical or predal attack. These were difficulties which to the ordinary run of mortals,
