an army.

But these tarry shipmen faced it all with an indomitable
courage, and never a cry of quailing. Life on the seas is so hard,
and (from the beasts that haunt the great waters) so full of savage
dangers, that Death has lost half his terrors to them through sheer
familiarity. They were fellows who from pure lust for a fray would
fight to a finish amongst themselves in the taverns ashore; and so
here, in this desperate sea-battle, the passion for killing burned
in them, as a fire stone from Heaven rages in a forest; and they
took even their death-wounds laughing.

On our side the battle-cry was "Tob!" and the name of this
obscure ship-captain seemed to carry a confidence with it for our
own crews that many a well-known commander might have envied. The
enemy had a dozen rallying cries, and these confused them. But as
their other ship-commanders one by one were killed, and Dason
remained, active with mischief, "Dason!" became the shout which was
thrown back at us in response to our "Tob!"

However, I will not load my page with farther long account of
this obscure sea-fight, whose only glory was its ferocity. One by
one all the ships of either side were sunk or lay with all their
people killed, till finally only Dason's galley and our own "Bear"
were left. For the moment we were being mastered. We had a score
of men remaining out of all those that manned the navy when it
sailed from Yucatan, and the enemy had boarded us and made the
decks of the "Bear" the field of battle. But they had been over
busy with the throwing fire, and presently, as we raged at one
another, the smoke and the flame from the sturdy vessel herself let