a line for
them beyond which we forbade them to advance. Then, all being ready
I gave the word. Instantly some three score stones, none less than
a pound in weight, hurtled down, many of them falling on to the
sand, a dozen, maybe, finding the deck, and two or three striking
the buccaneers.

There was a roar from below, which the negroes answered with a wild
whoop, and then a dozen muskets flashed, and the slugs whistled
over our heads or embedded themselves in the cliff. Another shower
of stones fell, a greater proportion this time hitting the mark,
which filled the simple negroes with such joy that they pressed
forward in full view from the ship, many of them exposing the whole
upper half of their bodies.

What ensued taught them a lesson. A second fusillade burst from the
vessel; two of the negroes fell with howls of pain; the rest
scurried back in dismay, and some few took to their heels and fled
squealing into the woods. I called them back and rated them soundly
for disobeying orders, and then we placed them again in a secure
position and the bombardment recommenced.

I reckoned that within a minute or two five hundred stones had been
hurled from the cliff, and though many more fell upon the sand than
upon the deck I saw that the effect was answering my hopes. Some of
the crew retreated to the lee side of the masts; others crouched
under the guns, whence they fired their muskets, slowly and with
difficulty, doing us no harm; others again took refuge by the break
of the poop, and in the round house and the forecastle.

One man with great boldness tried to climb the rigging to the
cross-trees, no doubt with intent to get a better aim. But he
instantly became the target for a perfect hurricane of stones, and
he dropped to the deck and crawled painfully away. In a few minutes
not a man was to be seen.

Bidding the negroes continue to throw, but not so rapidly, I lay
down on the cliff top and took a good look at the vessel. So far as
I could discover, no one was so posted as to be able to see below
the level of the deck and I deemed that the time had come to
attempt the second and more hazardous part of my plan. Leaving
Uncle Moses to superintend the activities of the main body of
negroes, I crept down the gap with Cludde, Punchard and a score of
the men who possessed arms of a sort, and came (not without some
perilous stumbles) to the sea line, immediately opposite to the bow
of the brig. Then those of us who h