d to Tepi and his mate; "get out the
guns, quick. Sit down in the cabin and fire, one on each side of me."

I did not speak a moment too soon, for the leading boat suddenly lowered
her sail, took in all her oars but two, and began firing at us at less
than three hundred yards, and every bullet hit us somewhere, either in
the hull or aloft. Then they took to their oars again, and I saw that
unless we could knock some of them over she--and those in the second
boat as well--would be aboard of us in a few minutes, for there was now
but little wind and the strength of the ebb tide was fast slackening.

Tematau and Tepi each fired two or three shots in quick succession, but
missed, and then a very heavy bullet struck the side of the coaming of
the steering-well in which I was seated, glanced off and ploughed
along the deck, and the second boat now began firing into us with
breechloading rifles of some sort.

"Let me try," I said to Tematau, clambering out of the well into the
cabin. "Go and steer, but sit down on the bottom, or you'll be hit."

Niabon handed me my Evans' rifle in the very nick of time, for at that
moment Tully stood up in the stern sheets of his boat and, giving the
steer oar to a native, began to take pot shots at Tepi and myself. I
waited until my hand was a bit steady, and then down he went headlong
amongst his crew. I knew I could not possibly have missed him at such a
short distance.

[Illustration: I waited until my hand was a bit steady 166]

"Good!" cried Niabon exultingly, as both Tepi and myself fired together
and three of the native paddlers who were sitting facing us, rolled over
off their seats, either dead or badly wounded, for in an instant the
utmost confusion prevailed, some of the crew evidently wanting to come
on, and the others preventing them. By this time the first boat was
within easy pistol range the other, which was much larger and crowded
with natives, being about forty yards astern of her, but coming along
as hard as she could, two of her crew in the bows firing at us with a
disgusting kind of a foreign army rifle, whose conical bullets were half
as big as pigeon's eggs, and made a deuce of a noise, either when they
hit the _Lucia_, or went by with a sort of a groanlike hum.

"Take this," I said to Niabon, giving her my Deane and Adams pistol,
"and do you and Tepi keep off those in the nearest boat if they come on
again."

But she waved it aside, and seizing Tematau's carbin