About noon
The poor fellow had evidently been taken completely by surprise , a gag being in his mouth , and his hands manacled behind him , with a stout canvas bag containing two 18-pound shot lashed to his feet . We took the body on board the _ Daphne _ , and it was at once conveyed below to his own cabin , pending the construction of a coffin , the ensign being at the same time hoisted half up to the peak . This melancholy duty performed I was again sent away to drag for the anchor and cable slipped by the _ Virginia _ on the previous evening , and these also I found , weighed , and conveyed on board the prize , where , under Smellie 's able supervision , the work of repairing and refitting was going on apace . About noon that same day a strange brig entered the river with the French flag flying at her peak , and brought up in the creek about a cable 's length astern of us . We were at once struck with the marked resemblance which the stranger bore to the _ Virginia _ -- though it was by no means so striking as the similarity between our prize and the _ Black Venus _ -- and we forthwith came to the conclusion that we now at last beheld the veritable _ Vestale _ -- the real Simon Pure -- before us . And so , upon Armitage boarding her , she proved to be ; her captain , upon hearing of the extraordinary personation of his craft so successfully played off upon us by the _ Virginia _ , actually producing his commission to prove his _ bona fides _ . During the course of this somewhat eventful day , also , one of our lads learned from one of the prisoners that on the occasion of our second encounter with the _ Virginia _ -- when she so cleverly pretended to be in pursuit of the _ Black Venus _ -- she was actually making the best of her way to Havana with the three hundred slaves on board which she had accused her sister-ship of carrying off , and that her elaborate signalling on that occasion was merely resorted to for the purpose of hoodwinking us .