"Very well," he answered; "no man can say more than that, and if you fulfil your promise I shall be perfectly satisfied.  And now, as to the work upon which I propose to employ you.  You must know that there is more work--a good deal more work--to be done on this station than there are ships to do it; consequently, although every ship at my disposal is now at sea, I am continually receiving complaints that the commerce in West Indian waters is inadequately protected.  I have applied for additional ships, but have been told that there are none to spare, and that I must do the best I can with what I have.  The fact is that the Caribbean and its approaches are not only swarming with privateers, but I have too much reason to believe that there is a strong gang of out-and-out pirates at work as well.  I was in hopes that the capture of that pirate brigantine by the _Europa_ would put an end to all that kind of work, but it has not; indeed, it has scarcely made any appreciable impression upon the number of outrages of a distinctly piratical character that are being constantly reported to me.  I am, of course, not now alluding to vessels that have gone temporarily missing, for they may in most cases be traced to the operations of the enemy; but I refer to those which vanish utterly, leaving no trace of any kind behind them to hint at their fate; and also to those other craft which are fallen in with, derelict, from time to time, plundered, and bearing indications that an attempt has been made to destroy them, either by scuttling them, or setting them on fire.  Privateers don't do that sort of thing, you know.  If they capture a ship they generally put a prize-crew aboard her and send her into the nearest port belonging to them.  Pirates, however, endeavour to escape identification by destroying all traces of their handiwork and butchering the unfortunate crews of the vessels.