DASTARDLY ATTACKS 
239 
the following morning. I cut out the bullet from 
under the skin of the head of this man. Both the 
men shot through the head were semiconscious, for 
when their arms and legs were being dressed they 
tried to move them, so as to assist those who were 
putting on the bandages ; but their breathing was 
stertorous and they could not speak. We buried 
these poor fellows at sea. 
When we got alongside the vessel our boat was 
a ghastly sight: four men lying apparently dead, 
riddled with bullets, and the boat half full of a 
blood-stained liquid composed of sea-water which 
had leaked through the bullet-holes and mingled 
with the blood of the wounded men. The man 
whom I had thought killed was very little hurt. 
One bullet only struck him in the calf of the leg, 
but he thought it better to lie in the bottom of the 
boat and sham death. The casualties were 100 per 
cent., 50 per cent, killed, and 50 per cent, wounded—* 
enough to satisfy anyone with warlike tastes, I 
should imagine. 
I have often been asked what my sensations were 
at the time. I can remember them distinctly, as 
they were very vividly impressed upon me. Not 
being by nature of an excitable or nervous tempera¬ 
ment, I took matters fairly coolly. I remember 
weighing the chance of getting overboard into the 
water and swimming alongside the boat, but decided 
we should be just as liable to be drowned as shot, 
as no one can stand the cold water for long. For 
the greater part of the time I was vigorously plying 
my paddle, standing facing forward in the bow of 
my boat, and only presenting the edge of my body, 
the left side, to the enemy. This is how it was that 
