I begged Lady Biddy, for the love of Heaven, to lie down in the bottom of the boat, at the same time that I pushed back into the haven from which we had ventured, for here were we safe from arrows, and if the Indians had the stomach to come to close quarters I counted I could give a very good account of myself with my sword. But as to jeopardizing my dear lady's life by running through the flight of their arrows, that would I not do, though they kept us prisoner a whole day.

So here, having fastened the boat, I waited with my sword drawn, feeling pretty safe, for, thanks to the figure of the rocks, no canoe could enter the cove to shoot us down at a distance without passing so close that I might lay on them with my sword. This daunted them exceedingly, and though we could hear them hallooing and shouting close at hand, not one ventured to push his canoe beyond the cleft where we lay snug.

Lady Biddy put a bold face on this business; yet as the sun rose, and the whooping and hallooing increased, showing that our enemies were gathering in greater numbers, her eyes betrayed uneasiness. Indeed, I myself did by no means feel so sure of our safety as I pretended. If one canoe contrived to get past me into the inner part of the cove, then might the savages in it shoot us down at their ease. And though hitherto none had dared to slip by, I doubted but presently, by egging each other on with their taunts and cries, one would pluck up courage to make the attempt; then all would depend upon my address, for if but one of those wicked, cruel heathens got by alive with his bow and arrows, as I say, we might measure the length of our existence by minutes.

Nothing is so wearisome and fatiguing as to await the onslaught of a hidden foe. The nerves and muscles must be kept braced up, the mind must never relax its energy, and one's very breath comes with painful labor. Maybe those savages were wise enough to know this, for though they never ceased to make themselves heard, yet for hours they made no endeavor to do more. But at length, about eight o'clock, as I judge, my ear caught the dash of oars in the water above the din of voices, and the next moment the prow of a canoe shot into sight. And now, first of all, I flings one of my oars out so that it caught against a rock opposite, and another on the hither side, barring the passage, and the result of this was that, as the canoe shot forward, the oar catches the first natural in the loins and pitches him forward upon the next, and that one in his turn upon the third, to their great discomfiture; still, the oarsmen (who squat at the stern of the canoes in these parts) pushed forward, notwithstanding this cheek; but by this time I had snatched up my sword, and did lay on with such vigor that only two of the oarsmen out of the four escaped with their lives by backing out the way they ventured in. Of spear and bow men I believe I cut down five, not to speak of the two oarsmen, and this without getting a scratch myself, nor being any way the worse except for a prodigious sweat in every part.

Lady Biddy had covered her face with her hands when I took up the sword, for her delicate spirit could not abide the sight of bloodshed; and when it was all over she still hid her eyes, so that I was enabled to rinse my hand over the side of the boat unseen, and cleanse it from the blood that trickled down the blade and splashed beyond the cross in this fight. Also I wiped my sword clean, but I perceived pretty clearly I should never again be able to use that blade for cutting up tortuga nor any other manner of meat that my lady was to eat.

This business was hardly concluded when Lady Biddy asks timorously if it is all over.

"Yes," says I, "and I reckon the blackamoors have had enough for this day."

And so it seemed, for after the howling which was set up upon the defeat of the canoe, there was considerably less whooping than before, so that we did begin to comfort ourselves by thinking they had given up the attempt for a bad job, and would soon leave us in peace. But here were we grievously out of our reckoning, as we soon had occasion to know, for as I was sitting myself on a thwart to ease my legs a bit, an arrow flies down betwixt my knees, and sticks bolt upright in the bottom of the boat.

Now this I did think to make light of as a curious accident, deeming that a savage had fired up in the air and that his arrow had fallen thus nigh me by chance; but the next minute a second arrow falls but a foot away from the first, and then a third and fourth plump down in the water alongside the boat with a noise like great hailstones. Then casting my eyes up I perceived a row of these red savages along the edge of the cliff above. Not a minute did I lose, but snatching up the lug-sail I cast one side over the rocks beside us in such a manner as it formed a kind of roof over Lady Biddy's head; and though more than one arrow stuck in the canvas while this was a-doing, yet got I never so much as a graze, which shows how Providence does favor Christians, to the mortification of the heathen.

This being done I crept under the shelter beside Lady Biddy; yet was I careful to see that my oar still barred the passage well, and that my sword was ready to my hand in case of need.