h the enemy was now
exhibiting. I stated what had happened at my own window, urged every
man individually to keep quite cool, and to take careful aim before
pulling trigger; and then returned to my post, just in time to see some
sixty negroes emerge from the bush bearing the trunk of a palm-tree
which they had cut down, and which they were apparently about to employ
as a battering-ram with which to batter in some of our defences. The
men in the adjoining room saw it at the same moment, and instantly, in
spite of the warning which I had so recently given, two shots rang out
from the window at which they were stationed. The range, however, was
too long, and nobody was hurt. Hurrying from my own room into the one
from which the shots had come, I found that it was occupied by one of
the overseers and a negro. I was engaged in giving them as severe a
lecture as my knowledge of Spanish permitted, when there was a sudden
call for all hands from the front of the house, and, rushing round, I
saw that a party of about a hundred of the enemy were charging across
the lawns in open order, leaping from side to side as they came, in a
manner admirably adapted to render our aim utterly ineffective. A man
was crouching at every loophole in the room, with the barrel of his
piece projecting through it, and even as I entered one of the pieces
spoke, ineffectively. The man who fired was Don Pedro, and he turned
from the loophole with a savage execration at his failure.

"It is not of the slightest use to attempt to pick them off at long
range while they are jumping about in that fashion," I exclaimed. "Wait
until they are so close that you can make sure of them, and then shoot.
To drop them at twenty yards, or even ten, or five, is just as effective
as though you bowled them over at a hundred. And as each man fires, let
him step aside and make room for another."

While I was thus exhorting my companions I stepped to the loophole which
had just been vacated by Don Pedro, and thrust the muzzle of my weapon
through it, sighting along the barrel. There was an individual coming
toward me, jumping from side to side like the rest, first to the right,
then to the left. I watched him for a moment or two, and noticed that
each spring of his to the left brought him exactly in line with a tall,
slender tree stem, some distance in his rear; I, therefore, aimed
straight for this stem, and then waited until he made his next spring to
the left,