Page:Intrepid & daring adventures of sixteen British seamen.pdf/16

16 frames was true balm, and then hurried to prepare for the attack, which, as a matter of course, was to be expected from Arica. They double-shotted the ship’s guns with grape, and unloosing those on the starboard side, brought them over to the larboard, on which side, being that opposite Arica, the attack was naturally to be anticipated. They soon smashed out rude port-holes in the bulwarks, and pointed the cannon,

In the meantime, the crcwcrew [sic] of the MincrvaMinerva [sic], with the Spanish soldiers, reached Arica, where the particulars of the exploit were immediately made known. Not a moment was lost in manning the boats that could be collected. Their number was not great, it is true, but they were crowded with men, who, had they been all canibals, would have made bntbut [sic] a sorry breakfast of the sixteen half-starvcdstarved [sic] hands on board the Minerva. Having learnt the precise number of the Minerva’s captors, their exasperation at the audacity of the adventure was unbounded; but for so daring an insult, they promised thcmselvesthemselves [sic] the satisfaction of making an immediate return of most ample vengeance. They were, in fact, so filled with resentment, and so anxious for revenge, that they neglected to be cautious. In the hurry and heat of the moment, they seemed only to strive which should first reach the Minerva by the shortest road. To mcnmen [sic] of cooler passion and calmer judgment, it would probably have occurred, that the safest, and in other respects the bcstbest [sic] mode of attack, would have been to disperse the boats, and, by surrounding the vessel, be in a situation to board on all points at once.