When, in answer to the summons of our 24-pounders, the captain of the _Dolores_ rounded-to and laid his topsail to the mast, he did not trouble his crew to haul down the studding-sails, for he knew that his ship was as good as lost to him, and the result was that the booms snapped short off at the irons, like carrots, leaving a raffle of slatting canvas, gear, and thrashing wreckage for the prize crew to clear away.  Thus, although we at once hauled-up for our port upon parting company with the _Shark_, we had nearly an hour's hard work before us in the dark ere the studding-sails were got in, the gear unrove and unbent, and the stumps of the booms cleared away, and I thought it hardly worth while to get a fresh set of booms fitted and sent aloft that night.  We accordingly jogged along under plain sail until daylight, when we got the studding-sails once more upon the little hooker and tried her paces.  She proved to be astonishingly fast in light, and even moderate, weather, and I felt convinced that had the wind not breezed up so strongly as it did on the previous day, the _Shark_ would never have overtaken her.