in accordance with a general plan, should remain to oppose the
passage of the enemy.

This, their first success over the Spaniards, caused a wild
exultation among the negroes and natives; and Ned and Gerald were
viewed as heroes. The lads took advantage of their popularity to
impress upon the negroes the necessity of organizing themselves,
and undergoing certain drill and discipline; without it, as they
told them, although occasionally they might succeed in driving back
the Spaniards, yet in the long run they must be defeated. It was
only by fighting with regularity, like trained soldiers, that they
would make themselves respected by the Spaniards; and the latter,
instead of viewing them as wild beasts to be hunted, would regard
them with respect.

The negroes, fresh from a success gained by irregular means, were
at first loath to undertake the trouble and pains which the boys
desired; but the latter pointed out that it was not always that the
enemy were to be caught napping, and that after such a check as had
been put upon them, the Spaniards would be sure to come in greater
numbers, and to be far more cautious how they trusted themselves
into places where they might be caught in a trap.

The weapons thrown away or left upon the ground, by the Spaniards,
were divided among the negroes; and these and the natives were now
formed into companies, natives and negroes being mixed in each
company, so that the latter might animate the former by their
example. Four companies, of forty men, each were formed; and for
the next fortnight incessant drill went on, by which time the
forest fugitives began to have a fair notion of the rudimentary
elements of drill. When the boys were not engaged upon this, in
company with one of the native chiefs they examined the mountains,
and at last fixed upon a place which should serve as the last
stronghold, should they be driven to bay by the enemy.

It was three weeks before there were any signs of the Spaniards. At
the end of that time a great smoke, rising from the signal hill,
proclaimed that a large body of the enemy were approaching the
forest. This was expected; for, two days before, three negro
runaways had taken shelter with them.

The negroes had been armed with long pikes of tough wood, sharpened
in the fire, and capable of inflicting fully as deadly a wound as
those carried by the Spaniards. Each carried a club, the leaders
being armed with the swords taken from the Spaniards;