ters of wood and metal flew from the slide,
wounding and maiming at least four more men. And then, as though that
were not enough, the shot glanced and swept the boat fore and aft,
crushing in the side of one poor fellow's head like an egg-shell,
smashing in the ribs of another, and whipping the captain's sword out of
his hand, with all four of his fingers, as it flew over his head into
the darkness beyond.

In the teeth of this new disaster the pinnace forced her way through the
now divided boom, closely followed by Ryan in the gig, then myself, with
Gowland bringing up the rear. "Give way for your lives!" was now the
word; and at racing pace--or as near it as we could get with our sadly
diminished crews--we headed for the biggest craft of the four, which we
now made out to be a large brig, very heavily rigged and with immensely
square yards. We opened out a little to port and starboard as we went,
in order that we might show as small a mark as possible for our
antagonists to fire at, and, having already passed the heavy pinnace, I
was fast creeping up into the leading position, when Ryan, who saw what
I was after, sheered alongside and in sharp, terse language ordered me
to change places with him. Of course I could but obey, and the fiery
Irishman, finding himself in the best-manned boat of the lot, speedily
passed ahead, despite the utmost efforts of the rest of us to keep pace
with him. One more broadside of grape greeted us as we pushed somewhat
heavily across the lagoon, and that put the poor unfortunate gig
practically out of the combat, for it reduced her oarsmen to two, while
she had already been so badly knocked about that it needed the utmost
efforts of the least severely wounded of her crew to keep her afloat by
baling. We kept on, however, in the wake of the other boats, and had at
least a good view of the short, sharp fight that followed. The brig was
lying with her starboard broadside presented to us, and as the boats
advanced toward her they gradually passed out of the broad line of light
cast by the still fiercely blazing fire that had been kindled on the
shore. No sooner did this happen, however, than half-a-dozen men
provided with port-fires sprang, three into her main and three into her
fore port rigging, illumining the brig herself brilliantly, it is true,
but at the same time revealing the whereabouts of our boats distinctly
enough to enable her people to keep up a most galling pistol and
m