"This broadside, although doing us little other damage, so cut our rigging as to render our escape now impossible if such had been our intention. So after returning the salute we had received, in as handsome a manner as we could, I gave orders to bear down upon the enemy's ship, which I was glad to see had been considerably disabled by our shot. But as she had greatly the advantage of us in the weight of material, our only hope was in boarding her, and fighting it out hand to hand on her own deck. "The rigging of the two vessels was soon so entangled as to make it impossible to separate them. "In spite of all the efforts of the crew of the enemy's vessel to oppose us we were soon upon her deck. We found she was a Spanish brigantine sent out purposely to capture us. "Her apparent efforts to get away from us had been only a ruse to draw us on, so as to get us into a position from which there could be no escape. "I have been in a good many fights, but never before one like that. "As we expected no quarter, we gave none. The crew of the Spanish vessel rather outnumbered us, but not so greatly as to make the contest very unequal. And in our case desperation supplied the place of numbers. "The deck was soon slippery with gore, and there were but few left to fight on either side. The captain of the Spanish vessel was one of the first killed. Some were shot down, some were hurled over the deck in the sea, some had their skulls broken with boarding pikes, and there was not a man left alive of the Spanish crew; and of ours, I at first thought that I was the only survivor, when the negro cook who had been forgotten all the while, came up from the cabin of our brig, bearing in his arms his little son, of course unharmed, but nearly frightened to death. Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that with the exception of a few slight scratches, I escaped without a wound. "To my horror I now discovered that both vessels were fast sinking. But the cook set me at my ease on that score, by informing me that there was one small boat that had not been injured. Into this we immediately got, after having secured the small supply of provisions and water within our reach, which from the condition the vessels were, was very small. "We had barely got clear of the sinking vessels, when they both went down, leaving us alone upon the wide ocean without compass or chart; not a sail in sight, and many a long, long league from the nearest coast. "For more than a week we were tossing about on the waves without discovering a vessel. At last I saw that our provisions were nearly gone. We had been on short allowance from the first. At the rate they were going, they would not last more than two days longer. What was to be done? Self preservation, they say is the first law of human nature; to preserve my own life, I must sacrifice my companions. The moment the thought struck me it was acted upon.