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the Minerva by the shortest road. To men of cooler passions and calmer judgment, it would probably havo occurred, that the safest, and in other respects tho best modo of attack, would have been to disperso tho boats, and, by surrounding the vessel, be in a situation to board on all points at once. Had this been done, the handful of Englishmen must inevitably have been cut to pieces. But tho Spaniards did not condescend to consume time in concerting a plan of co-operation. They pulled on, in a body, to devour, as they said, the devoted Englishmen. The Englishmen, however, were prepared for them. As the fleet of boats approached, they coolly took their aim with every gun on board. The boats advancing in a dense extended line, each gun was brought to bear upon particular parts of them, so that there should be no useless expenditure of powder and shot. The Minerva being a deep-waisted vessel, with a top-gallant forecastle and poop, the boats' crews did not discover the preparations that had been made for their reception-so they pulled on until they were within pistol-shot of the ship's side. At that moment Mackay, to whom all eyes on board the Minerva were now directed, every thing having been in perfect readiness, gave the signal to "fire." A shower of millstones could not have been productive of more frightful effects. The moment before, the boats were in gallant array, burdened with some hundreds of bold hearts, inflamed with rage and revenge-the next, it was as if the bosom of destruction had gone over them. To use a homely simile, the broadside of heavy grape made a commotion among the boats, similar to that which is produced by an unexpected shot from a well loaded fowling-piece among a flock of ducks
