Page:Wonderful adventures of sixteen British seamen.pdf/8

8 would have been considered as absolutelyinsurmountablcinsurmountable [sic]; but, by the handful of famishing tars, they were viewed in no such light. ThoThe [sic] crew of thothe [sic] Minerva did not enter into their calculation at all; for, once on board, with cutlass in hand, they would speedily be overcome; and the fort, though strong enough to blow them out of the water in five minutcsminutes [sic], would not surely (so they reasoned among themselves) bobe [sic] so regardless of Spanish life and Spanish property, as to sink the Minerva in order to destroy a few impcrtinentimpertinent [sic] maurauders already on board of her. The formidable guard of soldiers could not however, bcbe [sic] so conveniently disposed of. To attempt a fair stand up fight with a force numerically so far superior, would be to court certain destruction. It thereforotherefore [sic] appeared to them that the only means by which the difficulty might, by possibility, be obviated, was to board thothe [sic] vessel by surpriscsurprise [sic] at midnight, and to securcsecure [sic] her hatches—a plan sufficiently simple in itself, and effectual too, provided it could be promptly accomplished. A council of war, consisting of all hands, having becnbeen [sic] hcldheld [sic], the schcmoscheme [sic] underwent solcmnsolemn [sic], but by no means deliberate discussion, and was pronounccdpronounced [sic] quite practicable!! This point finally scttlcdsettled [sic] to evcryevery [sic] onc’sone’s [sic] cntireentire [sic] satisfaction, and encningevening [sic] coming on, they stolcstole [sic] out from among thothe [sic] rocks whercwhere [sic] they had been concealed during the day, and hovchove [sic] warly down towards the mouth of thothe [sic] semicircular bay, in the innermost verge of which stands the beautiful town of Arica. BeforeBeforo [sic] daybreak they again betook themsclvesthemselves [sic] to a hiding place, close on shore, somcsome [sic] eight or ten miles distant from Arica; and, ere the sun had been an hour above thothe [sic] horizon, each in his turn had slipcdsliped [sic] out in thothe [sic] Indian’s canoe to cnjoyenjoy [sic] a stolen peep at the