"Acting under this impression, we made all sail for her.
"As the strange vessel did not make very great headway, an hour's sailing brought as near enough to give us a pretty good view of her, yet we could not exactly make out her character, yet we thought that she had a rather suspicious look. And still she appeared rather like a traveling vessel, though if so, she could not have much cargo on board, and as the seemed built for speed, we wondered why she did not make better headway.
"But we were not long left in doubt in regard to her real character, for all at once her port-holes which had been purposely concealed were unmasked, and we received a broadside from her just as we were about to send her a messenger from our long tom.
"This broadside, although doing us little other damage, so cut our rigging as to render our escape now impossible if such had been our intention. So after returning the salute we had received, in as handsome a manner as we could, I gave orders to bear down upon the enemy's ship, which I was glad to see had been considerably disabled by our shot. But as she had greatly the advantage of us in the weight of material, our only hope was in boarding her, and fighting it out hand to hand on her own deck.
"The rigging of the two vessels was soon so entangled as to make it impossible to separate them.
"In spite of all the efforts of the crew of the enemy's vessel to oppose us we were soon upon her deck. We found she was a Spanish brigantine sent out purposely to capture us.
"Her apparent efforts to get away from us had been only a ruse to draw us on, so as to get us into a position from which there could be no escape.
"I have been in a good many fights, but never before one like that.
"As we expected no quarter, we gave none. The crew of the Spanish vessel rather outnumbered us, but not so greatly as to make the contest very unequal. And in our case desperation supplied the place of numbers.
"The deck was soon slippery with gore, and there were but few left to fight on either side. The captain of the Spanish vessel was one of the first killed. Some were shot down, some were hurled over the deck in the sea, some had their skulls broken with boarding pikes, and there was not a man left alive of the Spanish crew; and of ours, I at first thought that I was the only survivor, when the negro cook who had been forgotten all the while, came up from the cabin of our brig, bearing in his arms his little son, of course unharmed, but nearly frightened to death. Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that with the exception of a few slight scratches, I escaped without a wound.