They made some attempt to train the guns, but desisted when
they saw that the utmost elevation would reach no higher than
halfway up. But the cliff top was well within range of their
muskets, as one unfortunate negro, approaching the edge too closely
found to his cost. A shot struck him on the leg, and he ran howling
back, causing his companions to scuttle like rabbits into the
woodland.
We had discussed during the night what course we should follow in
the morning, but without arriving at any conclusion. I hoped that
we should find ourselves in a state to make an organized assault on
the brig and carry it by main force; but this idea was speedily
dashed when I came to take stock of our forces and armament. We had
but eight muskets among us; I counted more than twenty buccaneers
on the sloping deck of the brig. Though we so greatly outnumbered
them I saw that a direct assault could not succeed. From the
vantage of the deck they would have us at their mercy; and though
fifty disciplined men, even unarmed, might perhaps swarm up and
overcome them by sheer weight of numbers, I believed that the
negroes would have no stomach for so desperate an undertaking.
And my former gloom and trouble of mind descended upon me, when I
saw the tide begin to creep up again. Unless we could do something
before the flood the buccaneers would without doubt get the vessel
off, for she had not sufficient way on when she struck to run her
deep into the sand, and they had only to jettison a part of her
cargo to float her.
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