“But the buccaneer’s hasty and unthinking act won the day for the corsairs. The cotton rag about the arrow caught fire from the powder, it fell unnoticed upon some palm-thatched houses within the fort, and ere the Dons realized what had happened the buildings were ablaze. Madly the Spaniards strove to quench the flames, but the fire was beyond control, it reached a magazine, and there was terrific explosion. During the confusion and panic that ensued the buccaneers rushed to the palisades and, piling inflammable material about them, soon had them burning furiously. Presently the stakes began to fall, carrying down masses of earth that had been piled between them, and over these the yelling buccaneers swarmed to the assault. Under a rain of stink pots and fire balls, boiling oil and molten lead hurled at them by the garrison, the English fell everywhere, and at last, seeing they could not gain the inner works, they withdrew once more. “But despite their losses they were elated, for the palisades were blazing everywhere and by midnight they were entirely consumed. When morning dawned only the charred and fallen stakes remained and great masses of earth had filled the ditch. The commandant, however, had stationed his men upon these mounds and both sides kept up an incessant fire of musketry. Within the castle the flames still raged, for the only available water in the fort was contained in a huge cistern in the lower part of the castle. Moreover, a party of the buccaneers was detailed to snipe the Spaniards fighting the fire and carrying water, while the others, hiding as best they could, picked off the men at the guns and those guarding the fallen palisades. Noticing one spot where the Governor himself was stationed in command of twenty-five picked troops, Captain Brodely led a sudden charge and succeeded in taking the breach. “Even the buccaneers were amazed at the valiant resistance they met, and, in his chronicles of the battle, Esquemeling particularly calls attention to the courageousness of the Dons. Once within the walls, however, the battle was practically won and, fighting hand to hand with pistols, pikes, daggers, swords and even stones, the British and the Spaniards battled furiously. Not a Spaniard asked for quarter; the Governor fell, fighting to the last, with a bullet through his brain, and when finally the few survivors saw that their cause was hopeless they leaped from the parapets into the river rather than surrender. And when the buccaneers found themselves masters of the fortress they discovered that of the three hundred and fourteen soldiers who had formed the garrison only thirty remained alive, and of these over twenty were seriously wounded, while not a single living officer was to be found.