already proved themselves such desperadoes, that, in case of
a present assault, nothing but a total massacre of the whites could be
looked for. But, regarding this warning as coming from one whose spirit
had been crushed by misery the American did not give up his design.

The boats were got ready and armed. Captain Delano ordered his men into
them. He was going himself when Don Benito grasped his arm.

"What! have you saved my life, Senor, and are you now going to throw
away your own?"

The officers also, for reasons connected with their interests and those
of the voyage, and a duty owing to the owners, strongly objected against
their commander's going. Weighing their remonstrances a moment, Captain
Delano felt bound to remain; appointing his chief mate--an athletic and
resolute man, who had been a privateer's-man--to head the party. The
more to encourage the sailors, they were told, that the Spanish captain
considered his ship good as lost; that she and her cargo, including some
gold and silver, were worth more than a thousand doubloons. Take her,
and no small part should be theirs. The sailors replied with a shout.

The fugitives had now almost gained an offing. It was nearly night; but
the moon was rising. After hard, prolonged pulling, the boats came up on
the ship's quarters, at a suitable distance laying upon their oars to
discharge their muskets. Having no bullets to return, the negroes sent
their yells. But, upon the second volley, Indian-like, they hurtled
their hatchets. One took off a sailor's fingers. Another struck the
whale-boat's bow, cutting off the rope there, and remaining stuck in the
gunwale like a woodman's axe. Snatching it, quivering from its lodgment,
the mate hurled it back. The returned gauntlet now stuck in the ship's
broken quarter-gallery, and so remained.

The negroes giving too hot a reception, the whites kept a more
respectful distance. Hovering now just out of reach of the hurtling
hatchets, they, with a view to the close encounter which must soon come,
sought to decoy the blacks into entirely disarming themselves of their
most murderous weapons in a hand-to-hand fight, by foolishly flinging
them, as missiles, short of the mark, into the sea. But, ere long,
perceiving the stratagem, the negroes desisted, though not before many
of them had to replace their lost hatchets with handspikes; an exchange
which, as counted upon, proved, in the end, favorable to the assailants.

Meantime, wi