Having loaded all our ordnance on the landward side, and kept such of our boats as were still seaworthy close alongside, we could only await the dawn, of which signs were already apparent.
At length it grew light, with all the splendour and rapidity of a West Indian dawn, and we were able to see how things fared ashore.
The stockade was still in the hands of Touchstone and his men, though two gaps in the palisades showed how close home the attack had been pushed. Yet around these breaches the dead lay thick, while scattered over the plain were other corpses, proving how well our people had handled their muskets.
Drawn up at a distance of half a mile from the stockade was a body of musketeers, to the number of about fifty. They were evidently planning a fresh attack, for those who carried firearms had their matches lighted. Yet they appeared to have no heart to advance, for we saw one whom we supposed to be their leader beckon angrily with his sword.
One broadside from the Neptune sent them helter-skelter. They fled past the landward side of the stockade, though beyond musket range, and disappeared behind the rising ground that terminated in the headland on the northern side of the harbour.
Captain 'Enery immediately sent two boats ashore laden with men, and, going with them, I was able to see the effects of the attack.
It appeared that our sentinels had heard the sound of footsteps and, receiving no reply to their challenge, had opened fire. The garrison had barely time to stand to their arms and man the stockade ere the foremost of their attackers gained the ditch, and attempted to rush the palisade.
In the protracted defence we had lost but three men killed and four badly wounded, while of our enemies nearly two score were found lying outside the defence.
One of the latter, being but slightly wounded in the leg, was brought into the stockade and questioned. Doubtless expecting to be hanged forthwith, he maintained a sullen silence, till Touchstone promised him his life should he speak the truth. This offer, combined with a number of veiled threats should he still prove obstinate, had its effect, and the prisoner became communicative.
His was a disquieting report. In the north-western part of the island, some eight or nine miles by the direct route across the marshy forest, though nearly twice that distance by the coast, was a settlement inhabited by buccaneers. They had seen our arrival, but, owing to the fact that their squadron of four vessels was away on a cruise, they had refrained from molesting us till the ships returned.