“In consequence of the helm being left the ship took a sheer, by which the sides of the two vessels came into contact, and the enemy, exasperated at finding himself so long disappointed of his prize by such a handful of men, and with a hope of ending the contest, took this opportunity of heaving his boarders into us. I ran to the wheel, and put the helm apart, which caused us to separate, and his people, many of whom had established themselves in the main rigging, with some on the poop, now thought of nothing but securing a retreat, which we endeavoured to cut off. We pressed them warmly—some gained their vessel, others jumped overboard to escape our pikes; and one man, who had reached the top of our boarding netting, with whom I had been personally engaged, now begged for quarter, which of course I granted. In this conflict I received a severe cutlass wound on the head from the man alluded to above, who in a state of desperation from his pistol aim having missed, hove his cutlass at me with an extraordinary violence which levelled me with the deck, from which position I prepared to fire at him when he sued for mercy and obtained it. “Our firing again commenced, but finding the strength of the enemy much too powerful for us, and with some apprehension of defeat should he still attempt to carry us by boarding, I took the first opportunity of tearing up my private signal sheet, and hove it overboard together with my instructions, and gave the master fresh injunctions respecting the destruction of the mail in case of necessity.