cut to pieces before
assistance could reach them. In perfect silence the boat left the ship,
few, with the exception of those immediately engaged, being aware where
she was going. With muffled oars they pulled along the narrow channel
amid the reed-covered islands, keeping a lookout lest any of the enemy's
boats might be on the watch. Rosas, however, did not suspect their
design, and at length, without accident, they reached the spot at the
back of the island, which had been fixed on for effecting a landing. It
was a little bay, formed by a point of land on one side of it, running
out some twenty feet or more into the stream. Close to this point a
large willow-tree had fallen into the river; the boat was run in between
the branches, which assisted to conceal her; a number of boughs were
also cut and stuck into the shore by her side, some being laid across
her, so that she was completely hidden from any passer-by.

As soon as this was done, the party commenced landing the rocket-stands
and rockets. The men found it very fatiguing, as they had first to
cross a swamp, into which they sank up to their knees, and they then had
a considerable distance to go over rough and uneven ground, among thick
roots and brushwood, till they reached the bank where the rocket-stands
were to be planted. All hands, however, worked without a murmur, and
soon had the rocket-stands placed and so directed that the rockets
might, as they hoped, just clear the top of the batteries, and fall in
among the men at the guns.

The work being accomplished, the men, pretty well knocked up, returned
to the boat, where, however, a glass of grog apiece, and some pork and
biscuit, soon set them right again. An officer and two men being left
to watch the stands and rockets, the rest turned in under a tarpaulin
spread over the boat, where they went to sleep. The wind, however,
continued blowing up the river, and the fleet could not move. They
found that even in daylight they could walk in safety across the island,
by crouching down under the bushes till they gained the shelter of the
bank. The guards could thus be relieved at stated intervals.

Twenty-eight embrasures, with heavy guns in them, were counted in the
forts at the top of the cliffs, instead of the hundred which had been
talked of. These, however, if well served, were sufficient to produce
fearful damage among the fleet, if not to destroy it entirely. So near
were the batteries, that