h honour as possible, it was
determined, in a council of war, that five of our largest ships should
attack the fort on one side, while the battery, strengthened by two
mortars and twenty-four cohorns, should ply it on the other.

Accordingly, the signal for our ship to engage, among others, was
hoisted, we being advertised, the night before, to make everything
clear for that purpose; and, in so doing, a difference happened between
Captain Oakum and his well-beloved cousin and counsellor Mackshane,
which had well nigh terminated in an open rupture. The doctor, who had
imagined there was no more danger of being hurt by the enemy's shot in
the cockpit than in the centre of the earth, was lately informed that a
surgeon's mate had been killed in that part of the ship by a cannon-ball
from two small redoubts that were destroyed before the disembarkation of
our soldiers; and therefore insisted upon having a platform raised for
the convenience of the sick and wounded in the after-hold, where he
deemed himself more secure than on the deck above. The captain, offended
at this extraordinary proposal, accused him of pusillanimity, and told
him, there was no room in the hold for such an occasion: or, if there
was, he could not expect to be indulged more than the rest of the
surgeons of the navy, who used the cockpit for that purpose. Fear
rendering Mackshane obstinate, he persisted in his demand, and showed
his instructions, by which it was authorised; the captain swore these
instructions were dictated by a parcel of lazy poltroons who were
never at sea; nevertheless he was obliged to comply, and sent for the
carpenter to give him orders about it. But, before any such measure
could be taken, our signal was thrown out, and the doctor compelled
to trust his carcass in the cockpit, where Morgan and I were busy in
putting our instruments and dressings in order.

Our ship, with others destined for this service, immediately weighed,
and in less than half-an-hour came to an anchor before the castle of
Bocca Chica, with a spring upon our cable, and the cannonading (which
indeed was dreadful) began. The surgeon, after having crossed himself,
fell flat on the deck; and the chaplain and purser, who were stationed
with us in quality of assistants, followed his example, while the
Welshman and I sat upon a chest looking at one another with great
discomposure, scarce able to refrain from the like prostration. And that
the reader may know it was n