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bulwarks, and defendcd himself nobly, but having refused to ask for quartcr, his antagonist was reluctantly compelled to cut him down.
The hatches were now secured upon the multitude below, the captivcs of the sixteen dare-devils above; and the closing of the hatches was accompanied by an information, that the slightest attempt to alarm the fort or to recapture the ship would bc followed by an immediate discharge of grape-shot through the dccks.
Here, then, was the Mincrva, and hcr guards and crew, fairly in the hands of our heroes, but they had yet much to do before being absolutely secure of their prize. On looking around them, they discovered that not only were her topmasts struck, but that all her sails were unbent, and her foreyard lying across the forecastle——her deck being, at the same time, “lumbered up” with goods ready for disembarkation next morning. In this state it was impossible that the vessel could sail an inch, and therc was no time to be lost, for an cntire quarter of an hour had elapsed since thcy got on board, and at day-dawn thc fort would at once discover what had happened—so the Indian was dispatched to the cuddy, where a number of the defeated seamen had taken rcfuge, to learn whcre the sails had been stowed—they were below, and the rolling of several guns from the ship’s side to thc middlc of the deck, with a few intimations, “upon oath,” that they were ready for the work of destruction, soon induced the Spaniards to hand the sails upon deck. These got, all hands werc immediatcly at work. The topmasts were swayed away, as also the fore-
