The first discharge did us no damage; but it was not difficult to guess that after the gunners once got our range we would suffer severely, and again I had hard work to prevent showing the white feather.
The grape came nearer and nearer, the gunners working the pieces faster than I had ever thought could be possible, and we kept peppering away at the men in the boats, firing so lively that soon they were driven in; but it had cost two of our fellows slight wounds.
The grapeshot would settle our business very speedily, I believed, unless our boarding party came along soon, and I looked anxiously astern.
The oars flashed in the water at the rate of forty strokes a minute, and our men were cheering lustily as they thought of adding another to the long list of prizes credited to the Essex.
Now the grape was coming with truer aim; two of our oars had been sheered off close to the rail, as neatly as if done by an axe, and it seemed certain some one of us would soon lose the number of his mess; yet, strange to say, I was not so terribly frightened as the situation warranted.
"The boarders will soon be goin' over the Britisher's rail, an' then comes the time for us to pull a little nearer," Master Hackett whispered to me, as if thinking I needed cheering. "Take aim at the gunners, an' it'll make you a heap easier in mind if you can knock one over."
I discharged my musket with careful aim, and then looked over my shoulder while reloading to ascertain whether the rest of our people were coming up.
The boats from the Essex were making rapid way over the water, the spray from their bows glittering in the sunlight like diamonds, and the enemy now turned his attention from us ahead to those who were so rapidly overhauling him from astern.
A full broadside was fired at the boarders, but the heavy shot passed over their heads without doing any damage, and we in advance added our shouts of joy to those of the boarding party.