“So far there was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be sure⁠—riggers and whatnot⁠—were most annoyingly slow, but time cured that. It was the crew that troubled me.

“I wished a round score of men⁠—in case of natives, buccaneers, or the odious French⁠—and I had the worry of the deuce itself to find so much as half a dozen, till the most remarkable stroke of fortune brought me the very man that I required.