But there was in this book a scrap of dirty paper, filled with figures.

Nelson, immediately upon seeing it, observed that the figures were written by a Frenchman; and after studying this for a while, said, "I can explain the whole.

The jackets are of French manufacture, and prove that the privateer was in possession of the enemy.

She had been chased and taken by the two ships that were seen in the W.N.W.The prizemaster, going on board in a hurry, forgot to take with him his reckoning: there is none in the log-book; and the dirty paper contains her work for the number of days since the privateer last left Corvo; with an unaccounted-for run, which I take to have been the chase, in his endeavour to find out her situation by back reckonings.

By some mismanagement, I conclude she was run on board of by one of the enemy's ships, and dismasted.