I knew we had the legs of her, and therefore felt more at ease in thus running the gauntlet than I otherwise should have done, so on we went at full speed.

She fired her broadside at about fifty yards distance, but the shot all passed over us, except one that went through our funnel.

The marines on board of her kept up a heavy fire of musketry as long as we were visible, but only slightly wounded one of our men.
Rockets were then thrown up as signals to her consorts, two of which came down on us, but luckily made a bad guess at our position, and closed with us on our quarter instead of our bow.

They also opened fire, but did us no injury.

At the moment there was no vessel in sight ahead; and as we were going at a splendid pace, we soon reduced our dangerous companions to three or four shadowy forms struggling astern without a hope of catching us.