DEVIL FISHING. 53 



water sufficiently deep to keep our boats 

 afloat. 



To leap into the sea to mount his back in tri- 

 umph, and shout a wild huzza ! were impulses that 

 we all felt and obeyed. Our next thought was to 

 secure our retreat to the shore. "We were embayed 

 among the flats : the w T ind was rising the tide 

 falling. If we grounded, and were caught in that 

 situation by the next flood, our boats would be 

 beaten to pieces, and we should have but a small 

 chance for our lives. The manner of our extrica- 

 tion has been already told. 



The friends who came to our assistance from Bay 



Point, were and , Esqrs., sportsmen 



of the conservative order, who had a proper re- 

 spect for their lives ! They left us at nightfall, 

 offering to make fires which might guide us to the 

 shore executing, I must admit, a masterly retreat, 

 under cover of this fire. The fire was not without 

 its use ; and had the stars been obscured, would 

 have been indispensable to our safety. I am far 

 from reflecting on these gentlemen. I think they 

 did what was perfectly consistent with their posi- 

 tion. They had not struck the fish, and were 

 bound by no point of honor, to lie by an unman- 

 ageable prize, and encounter the hazards of a night 

 adventure among the breakers. 



