CHAPTER XVII.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

The next day, the tempest having abated, and everything being snug on board the Queer Fish, we weighed anchor, took the northeasterly trades on our top-gallants, and started on our return round the Cape.

Every one was exceedingly jolly, as is usually the case on board a vessel homeward bound, after a long and prosperous voyage.

Very little occurred worth recording. We didn't meet with a single prize on our way to the Cape, but had another merry time with our Patagonian friends.

On the voyage up, on the Atlantic side, however, we captured four more prizes, one of them a very large and valuable ship, loaded down almost to the gunwales with coffee and spices.

When off the Bahama Banks, we were chased by a fast-sailing British war-vessel, and had our mizzen-top knocked off by her bow-chasers. But we successfully returned the compliment with our swivel, and, as nothing could overhaul the Queer Fish before a stiff breeze, succeeded in making our escape.

We arrived at Boston in the early part of March, after one of the most memorably successful voyages on record. Our prizes numbered thirty-six in all, and, of these, all but one safely reached American seaports.

So, with our pockets stuffed with prize-money, you may guess that we had a jolly time. My yarn is over, and you will hear no more at present from The Boy Privateer.

THE END.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Matadore_ is a name applied generally to the men who attack the bull, either on horse or on foot; but the distinctive and legitimate meaning of the term applies to those footmen who carry swords and whose office is especially that of the _coup de grace_.

Beadle's Half-Dime Library.

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+925 The Young Cowboy Captain.+

+933 The Two Midshipmen+; or, The Corsair-Chaser's First Cruise.

+949 The Three Lieutenants.+

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+972 Fighting Jack's Middies+; or, Dandy Dick's Dash.

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+1016 The Boy Bugler in Cuba+; or, The Cowboy Clan On Deck. By Col. P. Ingraham.

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+1018 Deadwood Dick, Jr.'s, Big Four.+ By E. L. Wheeler.

+1019 Burd Bayard's Close Call.+ By Capt. Hawthorne.

+1020 Barney Blake+, the Boy Privateer. By H. Johnstone.

+1021 Doctor Paul, Detective.+ By Leon Lewis.

+1022 Dean Dangerfields's Desperate Game.+ By Maj. Dangerfield Burr.

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+1010 Kit Bandy's Big Six+; or, The Rustlers of Jackson Basin. By Oll Coomes.

+1011 Deadwood Dick, Jr.'s, Dutch Pard+; or, Rooting Out the Rascals of Skeleton Gorge. By E. L. Wheeler.

+1012 The Cripple's Dead-Sure Clinch+; or, Trapping the Old Fraud. By Charles Morris.

+1013 Buffalo Bill's Texas Team.+ By Col. P. Ingraham.

+1014 Middy Ned+, the Runaway; or, Hairbreadth Escapes Afloat and Ashore. By T. J. Flanagan.

+1015 The Reporter-Detective's Big Pull.+ By Wm. P. Brown.

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