He requested Mr.Barlow, the young lieutenant in charge of the troops, to place half his men across each end of the plateau.

The back was defended by a cliff, which rose almost perpendicularly from it to a height of some hundred feet; the plateau being some thirty yards, in depth, from the sea face to its foot.

The male passengers were requested to divide themselves into two parties, and to join the soldiers in defending the position against flank attacks.

The guns were all loaded, and the sailors then set to work dragging up bales of goods from below, and placing them so as to form a sort of breastwork before the guns along the sea face.
The noise at sea had, by this time, greatly increased; and although it was still too dark to see what was passing, Captain Thompson said that he had no doubt, whatever, that the boats had one or more large ships in tow.
"Had it not been for that," he said, "they would long ago have been here.

I expect that they hoped to catch us napping, but the wind fell and delayed them.