ot a common occasion that alarmed us thus, I
must inform him of the particulars of this dreadful din that astonished
us. The fire of the Spaniards proceeded from eighty-four great guns,
besides a mortar and small arms, in Bocca Chica; thirty-six in Fort St.
Joseph; twenty in two fascine batteries, and four men-of-war, mounting
sixty-four guns each. This was answered by our land-battery mounted with
twenty-one cannon, two mortars, and twenty-four cohorns, and five great
ships of seventy or eighty guns, that fired without intermission.

We had not been many minutes engaged, when one of the sailors brought
another on his back to the cockpit, where he tossed him down like a bag
of oats, and pulling out his pouch, put a large chew of tobacco in his
mouth without speaking a word. Morgan immediately examined the condition
of the wounded man, and cried out, "As I shall answer now, the man is as
dead as my great grandfather." "Dead," said his comrade; "he may be dead
now, for aught I know, but I'll be d--d if he was not alive when I took
him up." So saying, he was about to return to his quarters, when I bade
him carry the body along with him, and throw it overboard. "D--n the
body!" said he, "I think 'tis fair enough if I take care of my own." My
fellow mate, snatching up the amputation knife, pursued him half-way up
the cock-pit ladder, crying, "You lousy rascal, is this the churchyard,
or the charnel-house, or the sepulchre, or the golgotha, of the
ship?"--but was stopped in his career by one calling, "Yo he, avast
there--scaldings!" "Scaldings!" answered Morgan; "Cot knows 'tis hot
enough indeed: who are you?" "Here's one!" replied the voice; and I
immediately knew it to be that of my honest friend Jack Rattlin, who
coming towards me, told me, with great deliberation, he was come to be
docked at last, and discovered the remains of one hand, which had been
shattered to pieces with a grape shot. I lamented with unfeigned sorrow
his misfortune, which he bore with heroic courage, observing, that every
shot had its commission: "It was well it did not take him in the head!
or if it had, what then? he should have died bravely, fighting for his
king and country. Death was a debt which every man owed, and must
pay; and that now was as well as another time." I was much pleased
and edified with the maxims of this sea-philosopher, who endured the
amputation of his left hand without shrinking, the operation being
performed (at his request)