then followed a death-like
stillness--if any thing, more unpleasant than the war-yell--and I
could not help feeling certain that the enemy lay between us.

The stream now ran rapidly over loose stones. Against the sky, where
the jungle had been cleared, I could distinctly see the outlines of
human beings. I laid my double-barrel across my knees, and we pulled
on. When within shot-range, I hailed, to make certain, and receiving
no answer, after a second time, I fired, keeping the muskets of the
gig's crew ready to repel the first attack in case the enemy did not
decamp. My fire was answered by Lieutenant Horton, "We are here,
sir." At first I was much distressed from the fear that I might
have hurt any one. They had not heard me hail, owing, I suppose,
to the noise of the water rushing over the stones; and they had not
hailed me, thinking that I must of course know that it was them, and
the enemy being in the jungle all round, they did not like to attract
attention to where they were. I found they had taken up a very clever
position. The running stream had washed the ground away on the right
bank, leaving a sort of little, deep bay, just big enough to hold
the boats, from which the bank rose quite perpendicularly. On the
top of this bank the jungle had been cleared for about thirty yards,
and on this Lieutenant Gunnel, with seven royal marines, was posted
as a rear-guard. This was an important position, and one of danger,
as the jungle itself was alive with the enemy; and although the spears
were hurled from it continually during the night, no shot was thrown
away unless the figure of the pirate could be distinctly seen.

It continued to rain: the men wore their great-costs for the purpose of
keeping their pieces dry; and several times, during that long night,
I observed the muskets of these steady and good men brought to the
shoulder and again lowered without firing, as that part of the jungle
whence a spear had been hurled to within a few feet of where they stood
did not show a distinct form of any thing living. The hours were little
less interesting for those who, in the boats below, stood facing the
opposite bank of the river with their arms in their hands. It appears
that the enemy had come down in great force to attack the boats from
that side; and as the river was there very shallow, and the bottom
hard, they could, by wading not more than knee-deep, have approached
to within five or six yards of them; but in th