course and sailed towards us, and we saw that
she was a Spanish frigate. Two or three of our fellows had expressed an
opinion that had we attacked the Spaniard under whose guns we had run
three months before, we might have taken her. Lord Cochrane, as soon as
she was made out to be a frigate, said to them:

"'You shall now have a fair fight, gentlemen;' and ordered the boatswain
to pipe all hands for action.

"I tell you, lad, it seemed to me that our chances were slight indeed, for
nearly half our men and two of the officers were away in prizes, and,
including officers and boys, we had but fifty-four men on board, so it was
probable that the enemy had five or six times that number, while he had
thirty-four guns to our fourteen miserable little pieces. I thought it
certain we should be blown out of the water, and I fancy everyone else
thought the same. However, we held on straight towards her. She fired a
gun and hoisted Spanish colours. At that time we were almost abreast of
her, and Cochrane, who had the American colours ready, ordered them to be
run up. This gave us time to get on to the other tack, and hold on till a
little out of her direct line of fire. Then we at once pulled down the
stars and stripes and hoisted the British ensign. The Spaniard fired a
broadside, to which we made no reply. Our guns were trebly shotted, but
Cochrane had given orders that not a shot was to be fired until we were
alongside the Spaniard, as our fire would do no damage whatever to the
ship. As we headed for her they fired another broadside, but, like the
first, this did us no harm, and rounding up under her stern Cochrane ran
us alongside.

"Our yards became locked in the Spaniard's rigging, and we then poured in
our broadside, which at this distance did considerable damage on her main
deck, the first discharge having, as we afterwards learned, killed the
Spanish captain and boatswain. Our guns had been elevated to their full
extent, for of course she towered high above us. While our shot struck up
through her main-deck, the Spanish guns roared overhead, cutting up our
rigging, but doing us no harm whatever below, while our fire continued to
work havoc among them. We heard the order shouted to board, but were
prepared for this, and at once pushed off far enough to prevent them from
leaping on to our deck, while the men caught up the muskets that had been
ranged in readiness against the bulwark, and poured a volley into them as
the