f us had time to get
hold of them before they were upon us. I cut and slashed as well as I
could, but it was not for long; for a spear lodged in my shoulder just
at the moment when a big native caught me a clip over the head with a
club, and down I went.

"I fancy I was some time before I got my senses again. When I did I
found that I was tied hand and foot, and was lying there on the sands,
with three or four of our fellows in the same plight as myself. They all
belonged to the jolly-boat in which I had come ashore. The other boat
had made a shift to push off with some of its hands and get back to the
ship; but I did not know that until afterwards, for I was lying down
behind a hillock of sand and could not get a view of the sea. There were
lots of natives about, and they seemed mighty excited. I could hear a
dropping fire of muskets, and guessed that those on board were keeping
up a fire on any who so showed themselves on the beach. The natives got
more and more excited, and kept jabbering together and pointing away
along the coast; and I guessed that some of their own craft were coming
to attack the ship.

"Presently I heard one of the guns, then another and another. The shot
didn't come whistling our way, so I had no doubt that the ship was
attacked. For a quarter of an hour the firing went on--cannon and
musketry. I could hear the yells of the natives and the shouts of our
men, though I could see nothing. The natives round me were pretty near
out of their minds with excitement; then they began to dance and yell,
and all at once the firing ceased, and I knew that the niggers had taken
the ship. I was afraid it would come to that; for you see they had lost
pretty well a third of their crew in the fight on shore, and the niggers
would never have ventured to attack if they had not been ten to one
against them.

"We lay there all that night, and I believe I should have died of thirst
if a nigger wench had not taken compassion on us and given us a drink.
The next morning our ropes were undone. Our first look when we got up
was naturally towards the ship. There she lay, with a dozen native craft
round her. Her decks were black with niggers, and they were hard at work
stripping her. No one paid much attention to us, for there was nowhere
we could run to; and we sat down together and talked over our chances.
We saw nothing of our shipmates; and whether they were all killed, or
whether some of them were put aboard the nat