ilst our
opponents were _inside_, and with a firm spacious deck to stand upon.
It was perceptible at a glance that the case was one wherein a prompt
and bold dash was necessary, for unless we could succeed in establishing
a footing at the first rush, the chances were that we should fail
altogether. I therefore hastily called to my men to reserve their
pistol-fire until they were sure of their mark, and, placing my cutlass
between my teeth and whipping a pistol from my belt, sprang for the
bulwarks the instant we touched. A great brawny fellow, whose ferocious
visage I well-remembered having seen among those of the drunken party
who boarded the _Pinta_, instantly stepped forward with an upraised axe
to oppose me, but I was fortunate enough to send a bullet crashing
through his brain ere the weapon descended, and as he staggered and fell
backwards on the deck I leapt in over the rail and gained the spot which
he had occupied. A dozen opponents at once closed in upon me, but my
second pistol accounted for one; another lost his weapon and his right
hand together by the first stroke of my cutlass; and by that time most
of the launches had gained a footing on the deck, so that we began to
make our presence felt. About this time, too, Fidd, with three or four
of his best men, were on the right side of the bulwarks; and in another
minute the entire party, or at least all those who were not killed or
desperately wounded, were on the felucca's deck, and settling down to
their work in grim earnest. And now ensued a hand-to-hand encounter of
as desperate and sanguinary a character as it has ever been my fortune
to witness, our tars on the one hand realising that if we were
vanquished very few of us would ever be allowed to escape alive from the
lagoon, whilst the pirates, of course, knew only too well that they were
fighting with halters round their necks. For fully a quarter of an hour
was the hellish conflict waged upon the deck of the felucca, our lads
now gaining a yard or two, and anon being driven back by sheer force of
numbers until our backs were pressed against the rail, and further
retreat, unless over the side, became impossible. And all the while the
air was full of the gleam and clash of steel, the crack of pistol and
musket, the tramp of feet, the heavy breathing of the combatants, with
their muttered execrations and ejaculations, the sharp cries of the
newly wounded, and the groans and moans of those who were al