acting as leader. The
boatswains were ordered to place themselves at the heads of parties with
ladders to scale the walls, and crowbars to break open the gates.

Mr Johnson was in high glee. "We shall see what we shall see, and I am
very much mistaken if we don't teach the Mynheers a lesson they will not
easily forget," he exclaimed, as he reviewed the articles under his
directions.

We made the high land of Saint Barbary, at the east end of Curacoa,
before the year was an hour old, and we then had a fair wind, the
regular south-east trade, to run for the harbour of Saint Ann's,
situated on the south-east of the island. Every one was in high
spirits. We knew full well that the enterprise was a difficult and
dangerous one, but we saw that it was planned with consummate prudence
and forethought, and we felt perfect confidence that it would succeed.
It was no child's play we were about to perform, as, the gallant
Arethusa leading, we stood for the harbour, with our boats in tow, ready
at a moment's notice to disembark the storming parties. We felt very
proud, for we were going to show what bluejackets could do when left to
themselves. I was stationed on the forecastle, and so was Grey, with
our glasses constantly at our eyes. Before us appeared the narrow
entrance of the harbour, only fifteen fathoms wide; indeed it nowhere
exceeds a quarter of a mile in width. On our right appeared Fort
Amsterdam, mounting no less than sixty guns in two tiers, capable, it
seemed, of blowing us all out of the water, while there was a chain of
forts on the opposite side, and at the bottom of the harbour the
fortress, said to be impregnable, of Forte Republique enfilading the
whole, and almost within grape-shot distance. Athwart the harbour was
moored a Dutch thirty-six gun frigate and a twenty-gun corvette. The
commodore had been ordered to diplomatise, and so he did in the most
effectual way, for we all sailed in with a flag of truce flying, but
with the guns run out and the men at their quarters. The Mynheers,
however, were not inclined to listen to reason, but, waking up and
seeing some strangers in their harbour, they hurried to their guns, and
began firing away at us. Their aim was not very good, and few shots hit
us. On we steadily sailed. Suddenly there was a cry of disappointment;
the wind had shifted, and, coming down the harbour, very nearly drove us
on shore. There seemed every prospect of our being compelled to a