He went to verify a suspicion that he had formed, and approached the fort as nearly as he dared and a deal nearer than was safe.
On all fours he crawled to the summit of an eminence a mile or so away, whence he found himself commanding a view of the interior dispositions of the stronghold.

By the aid of a telescope with which he had equipped himself he was able to verify that, as he had suspected and hoped, the fort's artillery was all mounted on the seaward side.
Satisfied, he returned to Maracaybo, and laid before the six who composed his council--Pitt, Hagthorpe, Yberville, Wolverstone, Dyke, and Ogle--a proposal to storm the fort from the landward side.

Crossing to the island under cover of night, they would take the Spaniards by surprise and attempt to overpower them before they could shift their guns to meet the onslaught.
With the exception of Wolverstone, who was by temperament the kind of man who favours desperate chances, those officers received the proposal coldly.

Hagthorpe incontinently opposed it.
"It's a harebrained scheme, Peter," he said gravely, shaking his handsome head.

"Consider now that we cannot depend upon approaching unperceived to a distance whence we might storm the fort before the cannon could be moved.