setting foot upon
shore.

Yet the courage and daring of the island warriors could not be
restrained. A party of thirty swam out and boarded a junk, where their
keen-edged swords proved more than a match for the Tartar bows and
spears, so that they returned with the heads of the crew. A second party
tried to repeat a like adventure, but the Tartars were now on the alert
and killed them all. One captain, with a picked crew, steered out in
broad daylight to a Chinese junk, heedless of a shower of darts, one of
which took off his arm. In a minute more he and his men were on the deck
and were driving back the crew in a fierce hand-to-hand encounter.
Before other vessels of the fleet could come up, they had fired the
captured junk and were off again, bearing with them twenty-one heads of
the foe.

To prevent such attacks all advanced boats were withdrawn and the fleet
was linked together with iron chains, while with catapults and great
bows heavy darts and stones were showered on approaching Japanese boats,
sinking many of them and destroying their crews. But all efforts of the
Tartars to land were bravely repulsed, and such detachments as reached
the shore were driven into the sea before they could prepare for
defence, over two thousand of the enemy falling in these preliminary
attempts. With the utmost haste a long line of fortifications,
consisting of earthworks and palisades, had been thrown up for miles
along the shore, and behind these defences the island soldiers defied
their foes.

Among the defenders was a captain, Michiari by name, whose hatred of the
Mongols led him to a deed of the most desperate daring. Springing over
the breastworks, he defied the barbarians to mortal combat. Then,
filling two boats with others as daring as himself, he pushed out to the
fleet.

Both sides looked on in amazement. "Is the man mad?" said the Japanese.
"Are those two little boats coming to attack our whole fleet?" asked the
Mongols. "They must be deserters, who are coming to surrender."

Under this supposition the boats were permitted to approach unharmed,
their course being directed towards a large Tartar junk. A near approach
being thus made, grappling-irons were flung out, and in a minute more
the daring assailants were leaping on board the junk.

Taken by surprise, the Tartars were driven back, the two-handed
keen-edged swords of the assailants making havoc in their ranks. The
crew made what defence they could, but the