it warrior; one, full
of resources and ingenuity, when his means were taken into the account.
The number of men with him, however, Brown assured Mark, was less than
nine hundred, instead of exceeding a thousand, as had been supposed from
the count made on the cliffs. As it now was explained, a great many
women were in the canoes. Waally, moreover, was not altogether without
fire-arms. He was master of a dozen old, imperfect muskets, and what was
more, he had a four-pound gun. Ammunition, however, was very scarce, and
of shot for his gun he had but three. Each of these shot had been fired
several times, in his wars with Ooroony, and clays had been spent in
hunting them up, after they had done their work, and of replacing them
in the chief's magazine. Brown could not say that they had done much
mischief, having, in every instance, being fired at long distances, and
with a very uncertain aim. The business of sighting guns was not very
well understood by the great mass of Christians, half a century since;
and it is not at all surprising that savages should know little or
nothing about it. Waally's gunners, according to Brown's account of the
matter, could never be made to understand that the bore of a gun was not
exactly parallel to its exterior surface, and they invariably aimed too
high, by sighting along the upper side of the piece. This same fault is
very common with the inexperienced in using a musket; for, anxious to
get a sight of the end of their piece, they usually stick it up into the
air and overshoot their object. It was the opinion of Brown, on the
whole, that little was to be apprehended from Waally's fire-arms. The
spear and club were the weapons to be dreaded; and with these the
islanders were said to be very expert. But the disparity in numbers was
the main ground of apprehension.

When Brown was told how near the schooner was to being launched, he
earnestly begged the governor, to let him and Bigelow go to work and put
her into the water, immediately. Everything necessary to a cruise was on
board her, even to her provisions and water, the arrangements having
been made to launch her with her sails bent; and, once in the water,
Bill thought she would prove of the last importance to the defence. If
the worst came to the worst, all hands could get on board her, and by
standing through some of the channels that were clear of canoes, escape
into the open water. Once there, Waally could do nothing with them, and