212 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



" I couldn't say how long the fight lasted ; it 

 seemed short, we were so busy, and yet long, deadly 

 long. It is no joke to have to defend one's life, and 

 the lives of those one loves best, against fourscore 

 bloodthirsty Spaniards, and that with only half-a- 

 dozen rifles for arms, and a few palisades for shelter. 

 When it was over we were so dog-tired that we fell 

 down where we were, like overdriven oxen, and 

 Avithout minding the blood which lay like water on 

 the ground. Seven Spaniards and two Acadians 

 were lying dead within the stockade. We ourselves 

 were all Avounded and hacked about, some with knife- 

 stabs and sabre-cuts, others with musket-shots ; ugly 

 wounds enough, - some of them, but none mortal. 

 If the Spaniards had returned to the attack they 

 would have made short work of us ; for as soon as 

 we left off fighting and our blood cooled, we became 

 stiff and helpless. But now came the women with 

 rags and bandages, and washed our wounds and 

 bound them up, and we dragged ourselves into the 

 blockhouse, and lay down upon our mattresses of dry 

 leaves. And Godsend loaded the rifles and a dozen 

 Spanish muskets that were lying about, to be in readi- 

 ness for another attack, and the women kept watch 

 while we slept. But the Spaniards had had enough, 

 and we saw no more of them. Only the next 

 morning, when Jonas went down the ladder to recon- 

 noitre, he found thirty dead, and several others dying, 

 and a few wounded, who begged hard for a drink 



