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.

This occupied three days, and at the end of that time the greater portion of the cargo had been removed.
The ship, now several feet lighter in the water than before, was brought broadside to shore until her keel touched the ground.