John Campbell steered, and Shay and Davy pulled as hard as they could towards the canoes, which were already drifting down with the current.  The two fishermen were busy with their lines, every now and then pulling out a fish and baiting their hooks with a fresh piece of shark.  They never looked up the channel, nor guessed the danger that was every moment coming nearer, for the blacks as yet had not made the least noise.  At last Campbell saw several of them seizing their spears and making ready to throw them, so he fired one of his barrels; and Davy stood up in the boat and gave a cooee that might have been heard at Sunday Island, for when anything excited him on the water he could be heard shouting and swearing at an incredible distance.  He yelled at the fishermen, “Boat ahoy! up anchor, you lubbers, and scatter.  Don’t you see the blacks after you?”

The natives began paddling away as fast as they could towards the nearest land, and Davy and Shay pulled after them; but the blacks soon reached the shore, and, taking their spears, ran into the nearest scrub.  When the whaleboat grounded, there was not one of them to be seen.  Davy said: 

“They are watching us not far off.  You two keep a sharp look-out, and if you see a black face fire at it.  I am going to cut out the fleet.”

He rolled up his trousers, took a fishing line, waded out to the canoes, and tied them together, one behind another, leaving a little slack line between each of them.  He then fastened one end of the line to the whaleboat, shoved off, and sprang inside.  The blacks came out of the scrub, yelling and brandishing their spears, a few of which they threw at the boat, but it was soon out of their reach.  Thus a great naval victory had been gained, and the whole of the enemy’s fleet captured without the loss of a man.  Nothing like it had been achieved since the days of the great Gulliver.

The two fishermen had taken no part in the naval operations, and when the whaleboat returned with its train of canoes like the tail of a kite, Davy administered a sharp reprimand.

“Why didn’t you two lubbers keep your eyes skinned.  I suppose you were asleep, eh?  You ought to have up anchor and pulled away, and then the devils could never got near you.  Look here!” holding up a piece of bark, “that’s all they’ve got to paddle with in deep water, and in the shallows they can only pole along with sticks.”

Pately Jim had been a prize runner in Yorkshire, and trifles never took away his breath.  He replied calmly: 

“Yo’re o’reet, Davy.  We wor a bit sleepy, but we’re quite wakken noo.  Keep yor shirt on, and we’ll do better next time.”

When the canoes, which were built entirely with sheets of bark, were drawn up on the beach, nothing was found in them but a few sticks, bark paddles, and a gown—­a lilac cotton gown.

“That goon,” said Campbell, “has belonged to some white woman thae deevils have murdered.  There is no settler nearer than Jamieson, and they maun ha brocht the goon a’ the way frae the Bass.”