Page:Intrepid & daring adventures of sixteen British seamen.pdf/13

13 bulwarks, and defendcddefended [sic] himself nobly, but having refused to ask for quartcrquarter [sic], his antagonist was reluctantly compelled to cut him down.

The hatches were now secured upon the multitude below, the captivcscaptives [sic] of the sixteen dare-devils above; and the closing of the hatches was accompanied by an information, that the slightest attempt to alarm the fort or to recapture the ship would bcbe [sic] followed by an immediate discharge of grape-shot through the dccksdecks [sic].

Here, then, was the MincrvaMinerva [sic], and hcrher [sic] guards and crew, fairly in the hands of our heroes, but they had yet much to do before being absolutely secure of their prize. On looking around them, they discovered that not only were her topmasts struck, but that all her sails were unbent, and her foreyard lying across the forecastle——her deck being, at the same time, “lumbered up” with goods ready for disembarkation next morning. In this state it was impossible that the vessel could sail an inch, and thercthere [sic] was no time to be lost, for an cntireentire [sic] quarter of an hour had elapsed since thcythey [sic] got on board, and at day-dawn thcthe [sic] fort would at once discover what had happened—so the Indian was dispatched to the cuddy, where a number of the defeated seamen had taken rcfugerefuge [sic], to learn whcrewhere [sic] the sails had been stowed—they were below, and the rolling of several guns from the ship’s side to thcthe [sic] middlcmiddle [sic] of the deck, with a few intimations, “upon oath,” that they were ready for the work of destruction, soon induced the Spaniards to hand the sails upon deck. These got, all hands wercwere [sic] immediatclyimmediately [sic] at work. The topmasts were swayed away, as also the