ake the blow more
effective, he lashed his anchor to the bow, so that the sharp flukes
protruded; thus extemporizing an iron-clad ram more than two hundred
years before naval men thought of using one. Thus provided, the second
blow of the sloop was more terrible than the first. The sharp fluke of
the anchor crashed through the side of the pinnace, and the two
vessels hung tightly together. Gallop then began to double-load his
duck-guns, and fire through the sides of the pinnace; but, finding
that the enemy was not to be dislodged in this way, he broke his
vessel loose, and again made for the windward, preparatory to a third
blow. As the sloop drew off, four or five more Indians rushed from the
cabin of the pinnace, and leaped overboard but shared the fate of
their predecessors, being far from land. Gallop then came about, and
for the third time bore down upon his adversary. As he drew near, an
Indian appeared on the deck of the pinnace, and with humble gestures
offered to submit. Gallop ran alongside, and taking the man on board,
bound him hand and foot, and placed him in the hold. A second redskin
then begged for quarter; but Gallop, fearing to allow the two wily
savages to be together, cast the second into the sea, where he was
drowned. Gallop then boarded the pinnace. Two Indians were left, who
retreated into a small compartment of the hold, and were left
unmolested. In the cabin was found the mangled body of Mr. Oldham. A
tomahawk had been sunk deep into his skull, and his body was covered
with wounds. The floor of the cabin was littered with portions of the
cargo, which the murderous savages had plundered. Taking all that
remained of value upon his own craft, Gallop cut loose the pinnace;
and she drifted away, to go to pieces on a reef in Narragansett Bay.

This combat is the earliest action upon American waters of which we
have any trustworthy records. The only naval event antedating this was
the expedition from Virginia, under Capt. Samuel Argal, against the
little French settlement of San Sauveur. Indeed, had it not been for
the pirates and the neighboring French settlements, there would be
little in the early history of the American Colonies to attract the
lover of naval history. But about 1645 the buccaneers began to commit
depredations on the high seas, and it became necessary for the
Colonies to take steps for the protection of their commerce. In this
year an eighteen-gun ship from Cambridge, Mass., fell in