At the moment when she was within about a fathom of us, her bulwarks lined with swarthy, unkempt-looking desperadoes, holding themselves in readiness to fling themselves in upon our decks, I gave the word to fire, and the whole double-shotted broadside--with a charge of canister on top of it, which Simpson had quietly ordered to be rammed home on top of the round shot--went crashing into her, making a very pretty "general average" among her crew, and among her spars and rigging.
