We contrived to avoid her without shipping so much as a drop of water, thanks mainly to the fact that the brigantine had served, at the critical moment, as a floating breakwater for us.  Putting our helm down again the moment that we were clear of her, we came safely to the wind again on her weather quarter.  Had we allowed matters to remain as they were before our narrow escape, the _San Antonio_ would soon have parted company with us, for, as I said before, she was driving to leeward much more rapidly than we were.  Now that would not suit me at all, for since I had made certain that she was a slaver, I was determined to capture her as soon as the weather should moderate sufficiently to allow us to do so.  Therefore, when she had drifted about half a mile to leeward of us, I gave instructions that the helm should be eased up as often as opportunity permitted.  The result of this was that we contrived to make our own lee drift amount to about the same as hers, thus maintaining no more than a bare half-mile of water between us.