Page:Intrepid & daring adventures of sixteen British seamen.pdf/12

12 threat having been disregarded, he fired his musket into the boat, but without effect. “Slap alongside, my boys,” cried Tom Martin; “keep clear o’ her stinsails.” But Tom’s warning was too late; for at this critical moment the drugger’s mast and cordage ran foul of the Minerva’s swinging-boom, which, as is usual in large ships, had been rigged out for the purpose of mooring the boats, and a considerable swell causing the Minerva to roll heavily, the difficulty of boarding even without resistance was, in the situation in which they were now placed, rendered almost insurmountable. Not a moment, however, was lost. Martin, firing a pistol among a knot of Spaniards, who had suddenly collected on the gangway, seized hold of the Minerva’s “quiz work,” and mounting the swinging boom, was instantly on board. He was speedily followed by several of his shipmates, who, without uttering a word, commenced an unresisting attack on the astonished Spaniards. Meanwhile, the drugger had been swung round by the swell, till she came right alongside of the Minerva, and the remainder of the assailants easily scrambled on deck. The conflict was bloody, but of brief duration, for so instantaneous had been the assault, and panic-struck as the Spaniards were by its temerity, they made little or no resistance; and their unexpected visitors experienced little difficulty in driving those who had escaped with life down the hatch-way. The only man among them, indeed, who defended himself with true courage, was the Minerva’s boatswain. This brave fellow, who encountered Mackay, placed his back against the