The Wanderer was just the vessel to take his fancy. She was built for pleasure cruising; she belonged to the Koyal Yacht Squadron and had been cruising in the Mediterranean before Boyd bought her and took her out to Sydney. She was quite a little man-o'-war; she had ten brass guns mounted on the main deck and a 12-pounder gun called a “long Tom,” mounted on a swivel aft. Plenty of ammunition, round shot and grape, was carried for these guns; and besides the schooner's crew were well supplied with muskets, boarding-pikes, and tomahawks for close-quarters. There were boarding-nettings for tricing up all round above the bulwarks, to prevent the vessel being taken by a rush. All these methods of defence were needed in the South Seas in that era when a cruise among the cannibal islands was always an enterprise calling for continual vigilance and readiness to fight. Ben Boyd was in command; he had a. sailing master, and Mr. Webster, by virtue of his sailoring experience, was Boyd's lieutenant. The crew for the cruise were Kanakas, all good boatmen for landing work, from Western Pacific islands. Besides Boyd and Webster, there were only three white men on board.