Confident that it was impossible to storm the boat with success, the plan was abandoned by all save two daring Indians, who leaped aboard. One seized the steering oar and strove to run the boat aground, while the other discharged some guns found abandoned on the deck, wounding one white. After this exploit, he hastened to the bow of the boat and, lying upon the deck, endeavored to assist his companion in stranding the boat. Succeeding in this, he dropped the pole, and with supreme contempt for danger began loading and firing, passing unscathed through the return volley. In the general fusillade Beauchamp succeeded in shooting the Indian at the steering oar, who dropped dead upon the deck and was carried into Prairie du Chien, but in retaliation the savage in the bow, with his third fire, shot Beauchamp and he fell upon the deck mortally wounded. At this critical loss of the commander, some of the crew were for an immediate surrender, but the suggestion was quickly vetoed by Beauchamp, who cried: “No, friends, you will not save your lives so. Fight to the last, for they will show no mercy. If they get the better of you, for God’s sake throw me overboard. Do not let them get my hair.” In the meantime Jack Mandeville, a powerful member of the crew, with the heart of a lion, jumped into the breach, and as Beauchamp was cheering him with cries of “fight on,” Mandeville shot the Indian through the head and he, with his gun, fell overboard. Bullets from the shore continued to pour into the boat, and one party of the crew favored attempting an escape in the skiff, but Mandeville, who now assumed command, threatened death to the first man who suggested anything but fight. He routed out the timid and skulkers. Darkness was approaching, which boded evil for the crew. The bullets were falling with painful precision, and if the boat was allowed to remain aground it was clear that every man must die by the most refined torture. With the judgment and determination of a brave man, Mandeville jumped overboard and began the use of his herculean strength to dislodge the boat from the bar. The savages rushed upon him, but with an armored club he beat them back. Only warily and at intervals could the whites fire in their efforts to protect Mandeville. Seeing the futility of this style of warfare, four of the crew resolutely jumped upon the bar to their leader’s assistance, and in a space too brief for the relation the boat was put afloat and the crew quickly and safely working her down stream, the gathering gloom assisting their escape from the bullets which followed.