The men were busily discussing their "nip" of grog when, mechanically
glancing over the black surface of the water which lay spread out on all
sides of the ship, my gaze was arrested by a sudden phosphorescent flash
on our starboard beam, which was now turned in the direction of the
islands we had been watching so suspiciously earlier on in the night.
Looking intently I caught it again, and yet again, three or four times.
The gunner at that moment approached me to report that the men were all
ready to turn-to once more, upon which I directed his attention to the
point at which I had noticed the mysterious appearance, and asked him if
he could see anything.
Shading his eyes with his hand, he looked earnestly in the direction
indicated.
"N-o, sir, I can't say as I can," replied he, after a good long look;
"you see, sir, it's so precious dark just now that there's no--eh, what
was that? I thought I seed something just then, sir," as another flash
appeared, this time sensibly nearer the ship than before.
"So did I," I replied; "and it is my belief, Tompion, that what we saw
is neither more nor less than the phosphorescent flash of oars in the
water. If I am not mistaken there is a boat out there trying to steal
down and catch us unawares. Just go to the men, please, and pass the
word for them to go _quietly_ to quarters, and see that the starboard
broadside guns are loaded with grape."
Courtenay just then emerged from the companion with a lighted cigar in
his mouth, which he had helped himself to in the brief interval of rest
following the floating of the schooner. The spark at the end of the
weed glowed brightly in the intense darkness, and could probably be seen
for a considerable distance.
"Dowse that cigar, Courtenay, _quick_!" I exclaimed, as I moved to his
side, "and tell me if you can hear or see anything over there."
Instinctively guessing at an alarm of some kind from the quarter I had
indicated, my shipmate stepped to the opposite side of the deck, dropped
his cigar over the rail, and rejoined me.
"Now then, what is it, Lascelles?" he asked; "is there anything wrong?
and why are the men mustering at quarters?"
"Look over in that direction, and see if you can find an explanation,"
said I.
Unconsciously imitating Tompion in the attitude he assumed, Courtenay
stood intently gazing into the darkness for a full minute or more,
without result. He had turned to me and was about to speak when a faint
_crack_, like the breaking of a thole-pin, was heard, the sound being
accompanied by a very distinct luminous splash of the water.
"Ha!" exclaimed Courtenay, "there is a boat over there at no great
distance from us!" and at the same moment Fidd came barefooted and
noiselessly to my side with the question:
"Did ye see and hear that, sir?"
"Ay, ay, Mr Fidd, I saw it. Are the starboard guns loaded?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then kindly pass along the word to the captain of each gun to watch for
the next splash and then to train his gun upon it."
"Ay, ay, sir," was the reply; and Fidd turned away to execute his
mission as I sprang upon the rail and, grasping one of the shrouds of
the main rigging to steady myself, hailed in Spanish:
"Boat ahoy! who are you, and what do you want? Lay on your oars and
answer instantly, or I will fire upon you."
I waited a full minute without eliciting any response or sign of any
description from the direction in which our enemies were supposed to be
lurking, and then ordered a port-fire to be burnt and a musket to be
fired in their direction.
A brief interval elapsed, and then the darkness was suddenly broken into
by the ghastly glare of the port-fire, with which one of the men nimbly
shinned up the fore-rigging in order to send the illumination as far
abroad as possible, and at the same instant a musket was fired. For a
moment or two nothing whatever was to be seen but our own decks, with
the men standing stripped to the waist at their guns--a row of statues
half marble, half ebony, as the glare lighted up one side of each figure
and left the other side in blackest shadow--the spars and rigging
towering weird and ghostly up into the opaque blackness above us like
those of a phantom ship; whilst the water shimmered like burning
brimstone under the baleful light. Then, evidently under the impression
that the boat had become visible in the gleam of the port-fire--though
at that instant we could see nothing--a voice was heard from out the
darkness on our starboard beam exclaiming in Spanish:
"Give way with a will, my heroes! one smart dash now and we shall be
alongside yet before they can load their guns."
The dash of oars in the water instantly followed, the whereabouts of the
boat being at once made manifest by the flash of the port-fire upon the
wet oar-blades, and upon the foaming ripple which gathered under the
bows of the boat; and by the time that half a dozen strokes had been
pulled the boat herself--a very large craft, apparently, and crowded
with men--became dimly visible like a faint luminous mist driving along
the surface of the inky water.
"Steady now, men," I cried. "Take your time, and aim straight. Say
when you are ready."
"All ready with the midship gun!"
"All ready aft!"
"Ready for'ard!"
The replies were uttered almost simultaneously, and I instantly gave the
word "_Fire_!"
The three guns rang out as one, the triple flash not only illuminating
vividly, for a fraction of a second, the boat against which they were
discharged, but also revealing for the same brief space of time a second
and similar boat a few yards in the rear of the first. Fatally sped
those three terrible charges of grape. The guns had been aimed with
such deadly precision, and discharged so exactly at the right moment,
that the leading boat was literally torn to pieces; so utterly
destroyed, indeed, that she seemed to have vanished instantly from the
surface of the lagoon, leaving in her stead only a few fragments of
shattered planking, and a broad patch of phosphorescent foam in the
midst of which floated her late crew, a ghastly array of _corpses_, save
where, here and there, some wretch, less fortunate than his comrades,
still writhed and splashed feebly as the life reluctantly left his torn
and mutilated body. The spectacle of this catastrophe, so suddenly and
completely wrought, this instant destruction of some thirty or forty
human beings, was absolutely appalling; and its effect was intensified
by the extraordinary circumstance that not a single shriek, or groan, or
outcry of any description, escaped the victims of our murderous fire.
So dreadful was the sight that, for perhaps half a minute, the entire
crew of the schooner, fore and aft, stood motionless and dumb, petrified
with horror, staring with dilated eyeballs at the spot where the bodies,
now all motionless, lay faintly defined in the last rays of the almost
burnt-out port-fire.
But there was no time to be lost; another boat was lurking out there
somewhere, in the impenetrable gloom; so, rallying my faculties by a
powerful effort, I managed to exclaim in a tolerably steady voice:
"Load again, men, smartly! there is another boat out there somewhere,
and she must be prevented from coming alongside at all costs. Light
another port-fire forward, there!" as the man in the fore-rigging
dropped the fag-end of the first into the water alongside and the
blackness of darkness once more enshrouded us as with a pall.
There was, apparently, to be no more fighting just then, however; the
crew of the remaining boat had evidently seen enough to completely damp
their ardour, for the time being at least, for before the operation of
reloading the guns had been completed, the splash and roll of oars in
their rowlocks could be heard in fast diminishing cadence, conveying to
our experienced ears the fact that our enemies were beating a
precipitate retreat.
But the horrors of the night were not yet quite over, for, whilst we
were busily preparing to hoist in the guns from the raft alongside and
to get the ballast back into its proper place in the hold, a loud,
confused, splashing sound was suddenly heard away on our starboard beam,
and, on looking in that direction to ascertain what this new disturbance
might portend, we saw that the water was literally alive with hundreds
of sharks, distinctly visible by the phosphorescent glow which shone
from their bodies, which were tearing and snapping at the floating
corpses of the pirates, rending them limb from limb, and rushing off in
all directions with the dismembered fragments as the monsters succeeded
in securing them.
Such a sight was not calculated to inspire the men with any relish for
the somewhat perilous task of going down upon the submerged raft and
into the deeply-laden boats to sling the guns and ballast; but the work
had to be done, and the boatswain and the gunner volunteering to go down
first, we soon had the work well under weigh, finishing it
satisfactorily off and bringing a toilsome night of labour to an end
about two o'clock the next morning.
By daybreak all hands were once more astir, notwithstanding the arduous
character of their previous day's and night's work; the anchor was
weighed; and under short canvas, with Courtenay once more on the
topgallant-yard to con us, and a leads-man in the fore-chains on each
side of the ship, we cautiously felt our way to the northward and
westward until, about seven bells, we managed to reach the anchorage
which the feluccas had vacated on the previous day. A hurried breakfast
was then scrambled through; after which the long-boat and the gig, under
the command of Courtenay and the boatswain, with their crews fully
armed, pulled away for the shore, to see whether they could discover
anything like a depot, of which no sign whatever could be detected from
the deck of the schooner.
They pulled inshore about a quarter of a mile, after which we suddenly
lost sight of them among the mangroves which thickly fringed the shores
of the island. Three or four minutes later the sound of musketry
firing, at first in whole volleys and then intermittingly, floated off
to us from the direction where the boats had disappeared, and very soon
we saw the light wreaths of pale-blue smoke floating up and out from
among the trees. The firing soon ceased; and then nothing more was
heard or seen for nearly two hours, at the end of which time a thin
volume of light brownish smoke rose into the sky from about the spot
where we had before seen the indications of musketry firing; the smoke,
rapidly increasing in volume and deepening in colour until, thickly
besprinkled with sparks, it poured across the bay in one vast dense
black cloud which swept right over us where we lay, half suffocating us
with its pungent fumes, and almost hiding the islands from sight. Then,
when the smoke-cloud had become almost intolerable, the boats were seen
approaching; upon which the schooner was hove short and the canvas set
in readiness for a speedy retreat from our uncomfortable berth. The
moment that they came alongside the anchor was tripped, and, by the time
that the boat's crews were once more on the schooner's decks, we had run
out clear of the nuisance. The _Foam_ was then hove to; seven
singularly heavy kegs were hoisted in from the long-boat; the boats
themselves next followed; and then away we went, groping our way as
before, back toward the main channel from the sea. This channel was
successfully traversed and the open sea reached about three bells in the
afternoon watch, when I turned over the command of the schooner to
Courtenay and went below to my berth, not only dead tired, but also
suffering dreadfully from the wound in my head, which had not been
dressed for nearly twenty-four hours, and which was certainly none the
better for the excitement and exposure of the preceding night. Previous
to this, though, I had been fully informed of what had transpired on
shore; and which may be related in a very few words.
It appeared that the sudden evanishment of the boats from our sight was
due to the fact that they had discovered and pushed into a narrow
channel running to the northward and eastward between the two
westernmost islands of the group; along which channel they had proceeded
for about half a mile when they suddenly opened a tiny bay, on their
starboard hand, from the shore of which projected a long wooden jetty of
rough mangrove piles decked over with ship timber. This jetty they at
once headed for, and were immediately saluted with a volley of musketry
from a long black wooden building which stood close to the shore.
Luckily, nobody was hit; and the same good fortune befell them when,
whilst landing on the jetty, a second volley was fired at them. The
tars, headed by Courtenay and the boatswain, then charged up to the
building, and, without very much difficulty, burst in the door, just in
time to see some twenty Spaniards effecting a hasty retreat through an
opening in the opposite side of the building. Our lads at once crowded
sail in chase, shouting and laughing like a parcel of schoolboys out for
a holiday, and occasionally stopping to pop away at the enemy with
musket or pistol as opportunity offered. The Spaniards, however, were
lighter in the heels than our own men, and they possessed the further
advantage of knowing the country, so they quickly hauled out of sight,
nor was anything further seen of them, though Courtenay maintained the
pursuit for about half an hour. The party then returned to the shed by
the beach; and whilst Courtenay with three or four hands gave the place
a thorough overhaul, Fidd, with the remainder of the men, turned to and
broke up a very large yawl-built boat which was lying alongside the
jetty, afterwards carrying her dismembered planking and timbers up to
the shed, to be still more effectually destroyed with it by fire. A
quantity of ship's stores, such as rope, canvas, pitch, tar, paint,
etcetera, was found, evidently showing that this was one of the many
pirates' rendezvous which were known to be in existence along this
coast; but there was nothing in the shape of plunder except the seven
heavy kegs before mentioned, one of which, upon being opened, proved to
be filled with Spanish dollars (as did the rest, eventually), so they
were promptly tumbled down to the jetty and put on board the long-boat.
It had evidently been a place of some little importance; but, from
Courtenay's account, it was not to be compared for a moment with
Merlani's establishment. At last, the place having been thoroughly
rummaged, a bonfire was built on the weather side of the shed, which,
being well fed with tar, etcetera, soon set the entire building in a
blaze, after which they retreated to the boats, firing the jetty also
before shoving off. Altogether it was a very satisfactory morning's
work, since, with their limited facilities, it would be a long time
before the pirates could make good the loss and damage inflicted upon
them, if indeed they would have the heart to attempt it at all. The
Barcos Channel being only some five hours' sail distant from the Cristo
Cays, near which we had emerged once more into open water, and as it
would be quite impossible for us to traverse the intricate channel
through Santa Clara Bay during the hours of darkness, Courtenay
stretched off the land under easy canvas, and employed the remainder of
the afternoon in getting up the two topmasts which the carpenter had
reduced, in place of the spars expended on the previous day. This job
was completed and the schooner made all ataunto again by sunset; at
which hour the _Foam_ was hove to with her head toward the land; and all
hands, with the exception of the officer of the watch and two men on the
lookout, were allowed to go below and get as much rest as possible, in
order that they might not only recover from the fatigue of the previous
night, but also prepare for what would probably prove an equally
fatiguing day on the morrow.
On sitting down to the dinner-table that evening we were much gratified
to learn from Sanderson that poor O'Flaherty was doing remarkably well;
so well indeed, that the doctor had yielded a somewhat unwilling assent
to a wish the lieutenant had expressed to see me after dinner. But I
was strictly enjoined to make the interview as brief as possible; and to
be cautious above all things not to engage in conversation of an
exciting character. Accordingly, as soon as dinner was over, I knocked
at the door of O'Flaherty's state-room, and, in response to his feebly
spoken "Come in," entered. Notwithstanding what Sanderson had
previously told us about his appearance, I was shocked to see how
terribly loss of blood and the torture of his wound had pulled the poor
fellow down. His swarthy, sunburnt features were now sallow, bloodless,
and shrunken; contrasting strongly with his dark curly hair, which hung
in long elf-locks over his forehead and about his face, dripping with
perspiration caused partly by the excessive heat of the cabin and still
more by the anguish from which he was suffering. A sheet was his only
covering, his body being bare from the chest upwards, for greater
convenience in dressing his wound; and his right shoulder and arm down
to the elbow was closely swathed in bandages through which the blood
still oozed here and there. There was a restless feverish gleam and
glitter in his eyes which told all too plainly how acutely he was
suffering; and there was an occasional nervous twitching of the fingers
of the right hand which I did not like to see, and which he said had
come on within the last half-hour. But his spirits were excellent; and
his voice became stronger almost with every word he spoke as he
questioned me about our doings since the moment of his being struck
down. He expressed himself as highly satisfied with all that we had
done, and especially so at the watchfulness which had defeated the
pirates' attempt at a night attack; but he intimated his expectation
that, although he was unable to actually command the schooner, I would
keep him fully acquainted with everything which might transpire, and
consult him with regard to every proposed movement of an important
character. This I, at the time, thought reasonable enough; but I soon
had cause to regret that he had imposed any such condition upon me.
Daybreak next morning found us some eight miles off the mouth of the
Barcos Channel, and in such a position that we should be dead to
windward of it upon the springing up of the sea-breeze. We were,
consequently, as well placed for the run down to it as heart could wish.
But, on the boatswain calling me--I had remained in my berth all
night--I was greatly annoyed to learn that there was a small craft of
some kind, apparently a one-masted felucca, hovering about the entrance
of the channel and manoeuvring in such a way as to lead to the belief
that she was enacting the part of lookout. Courtenay and I had both
been called at the same time; but he was the quicker of the two in his
movements; and upon my reaching the deck I discovered him on the
topsail-yard scrutinising the stranger through his telescope.
The craft was then becalmed, though _we_ had a nice little breeze from
about east-north-east; but on our filling upon the schooner and edging
away in her direction, the felucca--for such she was--at once rigged out
six sweeps of a side and headed direct for the mouth of the channel.
Now this, I was afraid, indicated first, that the felucca was enacting
the part of lookout; and second, that our late antagonists had effected
a retreat to the Conconil lagoons, where they had probably united
themselves temporarily with Merlani's gang; and I anticipated that, if
this surmise of mine should prove correct, we should have our hands more
than full in the forthcoming attack. So heavy, indeed, would be the
odds against us in such a case that I thought it would be more prudent
to defer the attack for a day or two, merely passing through the channel
and affecting to make an examination of the cays on each side of it,
previous to retiring again and pursuing a course to the westward, thus
throwing our adversaries off their guard; when I considered it might be
possible to effect a descent upon them by way of Cardenas Bay, through
which we might perhaps be able to so nearly approach them, unobserved,
as to take them in a great measure by surprise. This plan, however, in
consequence of the injunction O'Flaherty had laid upon me at our
interview of the previous evening, I dared not put into effect without
first submitting it for his approval; and I accordingly went down to his
state-room to speak to him about it. To my surprise and chagrin I found
him utterly opposed to it. He argued that my plan would _not_ throw the
pirates off their guard, whilst it would allow them a great deal more
time in which to complete their preparations for an effective defence;
moreover, he disliked the idea of our making our approaches through
Cardenas Bay because of our having originally passed through it during
the night, when, as he said, we had had no opportunity to take careful
note of the landmarks, etcetera. I reminded him of the fact that the
water in Cardenas Bay was deep enough to float the schooner everywhere
about the track over which we should have to pass, and that that track
was, moreover, so nearly straight that, with a good breeze, we could
traverse it in an hour, thus materially lessening our chance of
discovery; but it was all of no avail, he _would_ have his own way; so I
was perforce compelled--with, I must confess, somewhat serious
misgivings--to return to the deck and give the necessary orders for
running in through the Barcos Channel as soon as the sea-breeze should
spring up.
At length, after what appeared to me an unusually long delay, a cat's-
paw reached us; and presently the true sea-breeze came creeping along
the water, freshening as it came. We allowed it to reach the mouth of
the channel, when the _Foam_ bore up; and a quarter of an hour later we
were rattling through the passage at the rate of eight knots. On
clearing the channel and opening up the bay we discovered the felucca
some four miles ahead, or about half-way across, foaming along with her
enormously long tapering yard square across her deck and the sheet eased
well out, running down dead before the wind, straight for the entrance
of the lagoons, apparently in the hope that we would follow her and thus
ground upon one of the numerous shoals which lay between her and us.
But if they hoped this they were speedily disappointed, as the moment we
had cleared the end of the channel, all concealment being then
impossible, we hauled our wind and headed the schooner for the first of
the marks which were to pilot us safely on our difficult way. Before we
had completed our first reach the felucca had arrived at the entrance to
the lagoons, and had disappeared. It was half an hour after noon when
we reached the same spot.
Two miles further on lay the narrowest passage in the whole length of
the lagoons, and here I fully expected our progress would meet with a
check. Nor was I disappointed, for on reaching the spot our further
progress was suddenly interrupted, and the schooner brought up all
standing, by a heavy chain which had been thrown athwart the channel,
just far enough beneath the surface of the water to catch our forefoot,
the ends being artfully concealed among the bushes on either side.
"Down, flat on your faces on the deck, every man of you, fore and aft!"
I shouted, for I guessed what would follow; and scarcely was the order
obeyed when the flash of artillery blazed out from among the mangroves
on either hand, and a perfect hailstorm of grape and langridge struck
us, riddling our bulwarks, and tearing the foot of the mainsail and
foresail to shreds, but, luckily, not hitting a soul of us; though how
Courtenay and I escaped--it not being etiquette for either of us to seek
the shelter of the bulwarks--heaven only knows; but we did. The guns
were pointed so as to sweep the ship from stem to taffrail at about the
level of the top of the bulwarks; and, had the men been standing erect,
we must have lost half of them.
"Starboard your helm! hard a-starboard!" cried I to the man at the
wheel, as the schooner rebounded from the chain; "let fly your starboard
braces! Gigs and quarter-boats away! Mr Courtenay, have the goodness
to take the gig and silence that battery on the north side of the
channel; Mr Fidd, go you in the quarter-boat and do the same with the
battery on the south side. Take a hammer and a bag of nails each, and
spike the guns before you leave them. Flatten in, forward there, the
larboard sheets, and help her head to pay round; we must go outside
again and seek a passage elsewhere."
The men, fully realising the peril of the situation in which we now
found ourselves, sprang like wild-cats to execute the orders I had
given; and in an incredibly short time both boats were in the water,
with their crews in them, fully armed.
They were in the very act of shoving off when the sound of a sudden
commotion in the cabin reached me, quickly followed by cries for help
from Sanderson; and, before I had time to reach the sky-light to see
what was amiss, up through the companion dashed poor O'Flaherty closely
followed by the doctor, the former naked as when he was born, his hair
bristling, his eyes aflame with fever, his teeth clenched, and the blood
streaming from the disarranged bandages about his right shoulder. He
glared round the deck for an instant, a single horrible unearthly cry
escaped from between his clenched teeth, and then--before any of us had
sufficiently recovered from our astonishment to lay a preventing hand
upon him--with one bound he reached the rail, sprang upon it, and,
steadying himself with his left hand by grasping the main-topmast back-
stay, waved his bleeding right arm frantically to Courtenay, who by this
time was a hundred yards away. At this moment the hidden battery on the
north side of the channel again opened fire, this time with round shot.
We felt a jar which told us that the schooner had been hulled; and, at
the same moment, heard a sickening thud and saw poor O'Flaherty's body,
doubled-up like a pair of compasses, dashed lifeless and bloody to the
deck by one of the shot, which had struck him fair in the stomach and
cut him almost in two. It was a ghastly sight; but there was no time
just then to inquire of Sanderson what the sudden escapade meant, or
even to have the body removed, for the schooner was at that moment head
to wind, and I was most anxious to get her round, which in that cramped
channel was no very easy matter. We managed to box her off, however, in
the right direction, when the topsail was backed, and we lay motionless
on the half stagnant water waiting for the return of the boats.
We had not very long to wait. A loud, confused shouting, intermingled
with a ringing British cheer from our own lads now and then, accompanied
by the clash of steel and the popping of pistols, told us, whilst we
were manoeuvring the schooner, that the boats' crews had effected a
landing; and about ten minutes later Courtenay's boat reappeared,
emerging from among the mangroves with another boat in tow, which, being
captured from the enemy, was stove and sunk directly she was brought
alongside the schooner. Fidd's boat followed almost immediately
afterwards; and I then had the gratification of learning that both
batteries had been captured, the guns spiked and capsized into the mud,
and the men who manned them driven off into the swamps, where they were
perfectly powerless to work us further harm, for some time to come at
all events, in consequence of the destruction of the boat, which
constituted their only means of escape from the situation they then
occupied. And this, too, without injury to a man on our side, though
the pirates had suffered pretty severely.
This was eminently satisfactory. There was now nothing to prevent the
removal by us of the chain which barred our passage up the lagoon; but I
had a shrewd suspicion that other snares and pitfalls had been prepared
for us further on, and I had made up my mind to see if these could not
be evaded by passing out of the lagoons and making our way to the
westward, close along the northern shore of the chain of islands which
formed them. I thought it quite possible that a navigable channel for
the schooner might be found somewhere between these islands, giving
access to the lagoons so near their head as to be beyond the range of
whatever other barriers to our upward progress might have been prepared;
and, if we failed in this, I felt confident that we should at least be
able to push through with our boats. As soon, therefore, as the boats
had been hoisted up, we filled on the schooner and made the best of our
way back again.
I judged that it would take us a full hour or more to reach the spot
which I had in my mind's eye; advantage was therefore taken of this
brief period of peace and quietness to let the men get their dinners,
with a glass of grog afterwards. They were thus rested, refreshed, and
ready to do anything or go anywhere when, about three bells in the
afternoon watch, we arrived at a spot distant something like five miles
from the entrance to the lagoons, where we found a narrow but apparently
deep channel trending to the southward, and promising to give access to
the lagoons.
The schooner was at once hove to, and Courtenay, in the gig, with his
crew fully armed, went away to take soundings and to reconnoitre.
Twenty minutes later the boat returned with the gratifying intelligence
that the channel was scarcely a quarter of a mile in length; that it
communicated, as anticipated, with the lagoon, and that, too, so
advantageously that, with due caution and by taking advantage of the
cover afforded by a small island, it might be possible for the boats to
approach undetected so closely to our enemies as to take them in a great
measure by surprise. It was further discovered that there were three
feluccas--one large three-masted craft and two small one-masters,
surmised to be our recent acquaintances of the Cristo Cays--lying in the
anchorage, with springs on their cables and apparently all ready for
immediate action; but the schooner which we saw on our last visit was
now absent, and Merlani--presumably--with her. The channel upon which
we had so fortuitously chanced was found to be of ample depth throughout
almost its entire length to float the _Foam_; but, unhappily, there was
a sort of bar, with only four feet of water upon it, stretching entirely
across its inner extremity; and we should thus be compelled to make the
attack with the boats. This was peculiarly unfortunate, as it would
necessitate the division of our forces, a certain number of hands being
required to look after the schooner--and this we could ill afford to do
in view of the strength of those opposed to us. There was, however,
evidently no help for it; we therefore manned all three of the boats, a
six-pounder being placed in the bows of the long-boat, or launch as our
people had got into the way of calling her; and I decided, after
considerable reflection, to personally lead the attack, leaving the
schooner under weigh and with all her guns loaded with round and grape,
with six hands and the quarter-master on board to take care of her. I
was, heaven knows, wretchedly unfit for service of so arduous a
character as that involved in a boat attack; but the consciousness that
upon the result of this action depended the success or failure of the
main object of the expedition, coupled with the anxiety attendant upon
my responsible position, overcame for the time being the feeling of
illness resulting from my wound, and created a restless excitement and
eagerness for which I feared I should afterwards suffer severely, but
which impelled me at all risks to be present and to take the direction
of affairs. The men, encouraged by the report of the gig's crew,
tumbled into the boats with alacrity and in high spirits; Courtenay
retained the command of the gig; Fidd, the boatswain, again assumed the
command of the quarter-boat; and, snatching a cutlass from the arm-
chest, I stepped into the launch, said a parting word or two to the
quarter-master, and then gave the order to shove off; upon which away we
all dashed in profound silence for the mouth of the passage.