208 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



illustrative, notwithstanding, of the martial virtues, 

 vigour, promptitude, skill, and endurance. Such a 

 feat was this dragging of the guns up the hill. A 

 party of seamen, landed to drag and work the guns, 

 was commanded by Captain Ramsay. Under him 

 Commander Preedy had charge of the battering guns, 

 Lieutenant Burgess of the field-pieces the whole, 

 of course, being under the immediate command and 

 direction of Brigadier Jones. Our 32-pounders, which, 

 after many delays and interruptions, were ready at 

 last, had now to be transported from the camp, over 

 some roughish ground first, to the foot of the hilL 

 There the difficulty began. The distance was only 

 about 500 yards, yet the ridge was so steep and 

 rugged, so broken by slippery rocks, pits, roots of 

 trees, and clumps of pines, that the ascent was not 

 easy, even to foot-soldiers. A road had been marked 

 out by the engineers over the least difficult parts, the 

 larger fissures filled up by fascines, and everything 

 done which art could do to make it passable ; still it 

 remained a sight to daunt men who were to pull 

 45 cwt. of wood and iron thereon. But British 

 sailors have a genius for getting anything up any- 

 where. Their habits give them an intuitive know- 

 ledge of the appliances of muscular power. They 

 must do it, however, in their own old wild way, with 

 a wild rush and a wild hurrah : keep them at the dis- 

 ciplined step or the steady pull, and they are lost. 

 They went at their work now with a will, encouraged 



