When we came thus far we had a great mind to get at them; and William
desired that three men might be given him with hand-grenadoes; and he
promised to go down first, and boldly he did so; for William, to give
him his due, had the heart of a lion.
They had pistols in their hands, and swords by their sides; but, as they
had taught the Indians before by their stink-pots, the Indians returned
them in their own kind; for they made such a smoke come up out of the
entrance into the cave or hollow, that William and his three men were
glad to come running out of the cave, and out of the tree too, for mere
want of breath; and indeed they were almost stifled.
Never was a fortification so well defended, or assailants so many ways
defeated. We were now for giving it over, and particularly I called
William, and told him I could not but laugh to see us spinning out our
time here for nothing; that I could not imagine what we were doing; that
it was certain that the rogues that were in it were cunning to the
last degree, and it would vex anybody to be so baulked by a few naked
ignorant fellows; but still it was not worth our while to push it any
further, nor was there anything that I knew of to be got by the conquest
when it was made, so that I thought it high time to give it over.
William acknowledged what I said was just, and that there was nothing
but our curiosity to be gratified in this attempt; and though, as he
said, he was very desirous to have searched into the thing, yet he would
not insist upon it; so we resolved to quit it and come away, which
we did. However, William said before we went he would have this
satisfaction of them, viz., to burn down the tree and stop up the
entrance into the cave. And while doing this the gunner told him he
would have one satisfaction of the rogues; and this was, that he would
make a mine of it, and see which way it had vent. Upon this he fetched
two barrels of powder out of the ships, and placed them in the inside of
the hollow of the cave, as far in as he durst go to carry them, and then
filling up the mouth of the cave where the tree stood, and ramming it
sufficiently hard, leaving only a pipe or touch-hole, he gave fire to
it, and stood at a distance to see which way it would operate, when on
a sudden he found the force of the powder burst its way out among some
bushes on the other side the little hill I mentioned, and that it came
roaring out there as out of the mouth of a cannon. Immediately running
thither, we saw the effects of the powder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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