He had
always been opposed to unnecessary work, and he considered that it would
be entirely unnecessary to attempt to disturb this admirable defence, so
he left the road, marched his men into the woods, led them entirely
around the barricades, and then, after proceeding a considerable
distance, emerged upon a wide plain which lay before the town. Here he
found that he would have to fight his way into the city, and, probably
much to his surprise, his men were presently charged by a body of
cavalry.
Pirates, as a rule, have nothing to do with horses, either in peace or
war, and the Governor of the town no doubt thought that when his
well-armed horsemen charged upon these men, accustomed to fighting on
the decks of ships, and totally unused to cavalry combats, he would soon
scatter and disperse them. But pirates are peculiar fighters; if they
had been attacked from above by means of balloons, or from below by
mines and explosives, they would doubtless have adapted their style of
defence to the method of attack. They always did this, and according to
Esquemeling they nearly always got the better of their enemies; but we
must remember that in cases where they did not succeed, as happened when
they marched against the town of Nata, he says very little about the
affair and amplifies only the accounts of their successes.
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