Behind
this a steep hill rose. The terrace, which was forty feet above the
water level, extended for about a hundred yards, when the ground on
either side of the plateau dropped away, as steeply as in front.
The guns were the first things taken out of the ship, and, regardless
of the remonstrances of the passengers at what they considered to be a
waste of time, Captain Thompson had the whole of them taken up on the
terrace. A small battery was thrown up by the sailors, at the two
corners, and in each of these two of the thirty-two pounders were
placed. The broadside guns were ranged in line along the centre of the
terrace.
"Now," the captain said when, at the end of the second day, the
preparations were completed by the transport of a quantity of
ammunition from the ship's magazine to the terrace, "I feel
comfortable. We can defend ourselves here against all the pirates of
the South Seas. If they don't come, we shall only have lost our two
days' work, and shall have easy minds for the remainder of our stay
here; which we should not have had, if we had been at the mercy of the
first of those scoundrels who happened to hear of our being laid up."
The next morning the work of unloading the ship began, the bales and
packages being lowered from the ship, as they were brought up from the
hold, into boats alongside; and then taken to the shore, and piled
there at the foot of the slope.
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