The fight must be hand to hand, but they were not the men to shrink from it.

When the boats struck, the Indians leaped up and began using their rifles as clubs.
Austill, who was in the bow of Dale's boat, received the first shock of the battle, but Caesar promptly swung his boat around, and grappling the other canoe held the two side by side during the whole fight.

Dale's boat was a very small one, and he to relieve it sprang into the Indian canoe, thereby giving his comrades more room and crowding the Indians so closely together as to embarrass their movements.

The blows now fell thick and fast.

Austill was knocked down into the Indian boat, and an Indian was about to put him to death when Smith saved him by braining the savage.