The harbour at Carthagena was formed, as
at St. Domingo and Port Royal, by a sandspit. The spit was long,
narrow, in places not fifty yards wide, and covered with prickly bush,
and along this, as before, it was necessary to advance to reach the
city. A trench had been cut across at the neck, and a stiff barricade
built and armed with heavy guns; behind this were several hundred
musketeers, while the bush was full of Indians with poisoned arrows.
Pointed stakes--poisoned also--had been driven into the ground along the
approaches, on which to step was death. Two large galleys, full of men,
patrolled inside the bank on the harbour edge, and with these
preparations the inhabitants hoped to keep the dreadful Drake from
reaching them. Carlile, as before, was to do the land fighting. He was
set on shore three miles down the spit. The tide is slight in those
seas, but he waited till it was out, and advanced along the outer shore
at low-water mark. He was thus covered by the bank from the harbour
galleys, and their shots passed over him. Two squadrons of horse came
out, but could do nothing to him on the broken ground. The English
pushed on to the wall, scarcely losing a man. They charged, scaled the
parapets, and drove the Spanish infantry back at point of pike.
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