With a cry of despair, Mr.Mason once more launched himself on the host of savages; but these were now so numerous that, instead of making head against them, the little knot of sailors who opposed them at that particular place found it was as much as they could do to keep them at bay.
The issue of the conflict was still doubtful, when a large accession to their numbers gave the savages additional power and courage.

They made a sudden onset, and bore back the small band of white men.

In the rush the pastor was overthrown, and rendered for a time insensible.
While this was going on in one part of the field, in another, stout Ole Thorwald, with several of the white settlers and the greater part of the native force, was guarding the principal approach to the church against immensely superior numbers.

And nobly did the descendant of the Norse sea-kings maintain the credit of his warlike ancestors that day.

With a sword that might have matched that of Goliath of Gath, he swept the way before him wherever he went, and more than once by a furious onset turned the tide of war in favor of his party when it seemed about to overwhelm them.
In a more distant part of the field, on the banks of a small stream, which was spanned by a bridge about fifty paces further down, Gascoyne and Henry Stuart contended, almost alone, with about thirty savages.
These two had rushed forward with such impetuosity at the first onset as to have been separated from their friends, and with four Christian natives, had been surrounded.