With a cheer they bent their backs to the oars and, although some were wounded, they rowed up to the side of the ship without hesitation or doubt.

Then from above a shower of missiles were hurled upon them--darts, stones, hot water, and even boiling tar.
It would have gone hard with the English, had not the Spanish carelessly left a porthole open near the water level; through this the English clambered, eager to get at their foe, and many of them raging with the pain caused by the boiling materials.

As they rushed on to the deck, the Spaniards were ranged, in two ranks, on either side of the hatchway; and fell upon them at once; but so great was the fury of the English that, facing either way, with a roar like beasts springing on their prey, they fell with axe and sword upon the Spaniards.
It was the wild rage with which the English buccaneers fought that was the secret of their success.

The Spaniards are a people given to ceremony, and even in matters of battle are somewhat formal and pedantic.

The combat, then, between them and the English, was one which presented no familiar conditions to their minds.