al warfare. In a sinking
ship, with a battery silenced everywhere, except where he himself
fought, more than a hundred prisoners at large in his ship, his consort,
the Alliance, sailing round and raking him deliberately, his superior
officers counselling surrender, while the inferior ones were setting up
disheartening cries of fire and sinking and calling loudly for
quarter--the chieftain still stood undismayed. He immediately ordered
the prisoners to the pumps, and took advantage of the panic they were
in, with regard to the reported sinking of the ship, to keep them from
conspiring to overcome the few efficient hands that remained of his
crew.

Meanwhile the action was continued with the three light quarter-deck
guns, under Jones' immediate inspection. In the moonlight, blended with
the flames that ascended the rigging of the Serapis, the yellow
main-mast presented a palpable mark, against which the guns were
directed with double-headed shot. Soon after ten o'clock the fire of the
Serapis began to slacken, and at half-past ten she struck.

Mr. Dale, the first lieutenant of the Richard, was now ordered on board
the Serapis to take charge of her. He was accompanied by Midshipman
Mayrant and a party of boarders. Mr. Mayrant was run through the thigh
with a boarding-pike as he touched the deck of the Serapis, and three of
the Richard's crew were killed, after the Serapis had struck, by some of
the crew of the latter who were ignorant of the surrender of their ship.

Lieutenant Dale found Captain Pearson on the quarter-deck, and told him
he was ordered to send him on board the Richard. It is a remarkable
evidence of the strange character of this engagement, and the doubt
which attended its result, that the first lieutenant of the Serapis, who
came upon deck at this moment, should have asked his commander whether
the ship alongside had struck. Lieutenant Dale immediately answered:
"No, sir; on the contrary, he has struck to us!"

The British lieutenant, like a true officer, then questioned his
commander, "Have you struck, sir?" Captain Pearson replied, "Yes, I
have!" The lieutenant replied, "I have nothing more to say," and was
about to return below, when Mr. Dale informed him that he must accompany
Captain Pearson on board the Richard. The lieutenant rejoined, "If you
will permit me to go below, I will silence the firing of the lower-deck
guns." This offer Mr. Dale very properly declined, and the two officers
went on b