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Updated: June 18, 2025
The men, encouraged by the report of the gig's crew, tumbled into the boats with alacrity and in high spirits; Courtenay retained the command of the gig; Fidd, the boatswain, again assumed the command of the quarter-boat; and, snatching a cutlass from the arm- chest, I stepped into the launch, said a parting word or two to the quarter-master, and then gave the order to shove off; upon which away we all dashed in profound silence for the mouth of the passage.
Steward, Williamson, and Comber; a corporal and four marines; my gig's crew; and a medley of picked men from our Dyak and Malay followers; not forgetting my usual and trusty attendant John Eager with his bugle, the sounding of which was to be the signal for the whole force to come to the rescue, in the event of surprise not at all improbable from the nature of our warfare and our proximity to the enemy's town.
This plan exactly suited me, and I consented, only begging to have a boatswain's mate, named Thompson, to go along with me; he was an old shipmate, and had been one of my gig's crew when we had the affair in Basque Roads: he was a steady, resolute, quiet, sober, raw-boned Caledonian, from Aberdeen, and a man that I knew would stand by me in the hour of need.
The chief, Macuta, expressing a wish to see a specimen of our dancing, not to let them suppose we were not as warlike as themselves, two of the gig's boat's crew stood up, and went through the evolutions of the broad-sword exercise in a very creditable manner.
Half a dozen sailors at once sprang into her rigging with ropes, and after lashing the junks together leaped down upon her deck, where Fothergill was leading the gig's crew and some of those rescued from the pinnace, while Mr. Bellew, with another party, had boarded her at the stern.
Still it floats, drifting outward, and for a while all seems well with it. Believing it to be so, the two youths rush to the tent, and each snatching an oar from it, prepare to swim out and bring the boat back. But before they can enter the water, a voice tells them their hope is vain, Captain Gancy himself calling out, "It's no use, boys! The gig's got a hole in its bottom, and is going down.
Look yonder!" cried Rodd, as, sweeping the park-like stretch around him, he suddenly caught sight of an object that filled his breast with joy. "Three cheers, my lads," shouted Joe, waving his hand, "and Oh, hold hard! Avast there! Gig's safe to have a hole through her bottom." For there, about a hundred yards away, between the trees, lay something gleaming amongst the mud.
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