long-range firing continued. When it proved ineffective,
David Kirke decided to close in on the enemy. The Abigail
crept up to within pistol-shot of Roquemont's ship, swept
round her stern, and poured in a raking broadside. While
the French sailors were still in a state of confusion
from the iron storm that had beaten on their deck, the
English vessel rounded to and threw out grappling-irons.
Over the side of the French ship leaped Kirke's pikemen
and musketeers. There was a short fight on the crowded
deck; but after Roquemont had been struck down with a
wound in his foot and some of his sailors had been killed,
he surrendered to avert further bloodshed. Meanwhile,
Lewis and Thomas Kirke had been equally successful in
capturing the only two other vessels capable of offering
any serious resistance. The clumsy French merchantmen,
though armed, were no match for the staunchly built,
well-manned English privateers, and after a few sweeping
broadsides they, too, struck their flags. The remaining
craft, incapable of fight or flight, surrendered. In
this, the first naval engagement in the waters of North
America, eighteen sail fell into the hands of the Kirkes,
with a goodly store of supplies, ammunition, and guns,
Alas for the high hopes of Father Lalemant and his
fellow-missionaries!--all were now prisoners and at the
mercy of the English and the Huguenots. Having more
vessels than he could man, Kirke unloaded ten of the
smallest and burned them. He then sailed homeward with
his prizes, calling on his way at St Pierre Island, where
he left a number of his prisoners, among them the
Recollet fathers, and at Newfoundland, where he watered