Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/56

 36 ( MEMOIR OF LIEUT. TUPPER.

and so successful a resistance. Captain Pechell, hav- ing ascertained that the ship could be taken in, cast anchor, with the boats in tow, at about noon in the mouth of the creek ; and before the broadside could be brought to bear by means of a spring on the cable, Lieutenant Gordon impetuously dashed forward in the barge with the view of boarding a mistico, which was endeavouring to escape by the weather channel. The captain intended that the boats should wait until the frigate was ready to co-operate with them, and he immediately recalled Lieutenant Gordon, but the latter was either too eager to attack, or did not hear the order ; and Lieutenant Tupper and the remaining officers, who were still within hail of the ship, were thus left in doubt as to the course they should pursue. The other boats, however, quickly followed to sup- port the barge, whose crew alone boarded and carried the mistico ; but Lieutenant Gordon, Midshipman Edmonstone, and every man, excepting one, being killed or wounded, they were compelled to abandon her, and aided by a light breeze off the shore, the barge fortunately drifted out, and was towed on board by the launch, Lieutenant Tupper pressing forward to her assistance, although he was by this time him- self desperately wounded. The boats, six in number, having been exposed to a most murderous fire for about a quarter of an hour, on returning to the Sybille, presented, particularly the barge, the melan- choly spectacle of a heap of dead and dying. Mid- shipman J. M. Knox and twelve men were killed ; Lieutenant Edward Gordon, dangerously ; Lieutenant Tupper, mortally ; Midshipman William Edmonstone*

of Lord Hothain.
 * A younger son of the late Sir Charles Edmonstone, Bart., and grandson

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