A POWDER-KEG ADVENTURE. 289 



sterna tion. Some tumbled off their horses 

 with fright, others fired their muskets at ran- 

 dom : a terrific panic had seized everybody, 

 and some minutes elapsed before they could 

 recover tlieir senses sufficiently to betake 

 themselves to their heels. Two or three per- 

 sons were killed in this ridiculous engage- 

 ment, the most conspicuous of whom was a 

 Capt Hinofos, who commanded the regular 



troops. 



A very curious but fully authentic anecdote 

 may not be inappropriately inserted here, in 

 which this individual was concerned. On one 

 occasion, being about to start on a beUigerent 

 expedition, he directed his orderly-sergeant to 

 fill a powder-flask from an unbroached keg 

 of twenty-five pounds. The sergeant, having 

 bored a hole with a gimlet, and finding that 

 the powder issued too slowly, began to look 

 about for something to enlarge the aperture, 

 when his eyes happily fell upon an iron po- 

 ker which lay in a corner of the fire-place. 

 To heat the poker and apply it to the hole in 

 the keg was the work of but a few moments; 

 when °an explosion took place which blew 

 the upper part of the building mto the street 

 tearing and shattering everything else to 

 atoms. JVIhaculous as their escape niay ap- 

 pear, the sergeant, as well as the captain whc* 

 witnessed the whole operafion,Temauied more 

 frightened than hurt, although they were both 

 very severely scorched and bruised. This 

 ingenious sergeant was afterwards Secretary 

 of State to Gov. Gonzalez, of revolutionary 



25 



