I  immediately,  by  his  permission,  ordered  a  forty-eight pounder  to  be  brought  from  a  neighbouring  battery,  which  I placed  with  so  much  exactness  (for  in  all  that  concerns  artillery, I  can  say  without  boasting  that  I  have  not  yet  found  my superior)  that  I  was  sure  of  my  mark.

I  continued  watching  the  enemy  till  I  saw  the  match  placed at  the  touch-hole  of  their  piece;  at  that  very  instant  I  gave  the signal  for  our  gun  to  be  fired  also.

About  midway  between  the  two  pieces  of  cannon,  the  balls struck  each  other  with  amazing  force,  and  the  effect  was  astonishing! The  enemy's   ball   recoiled  with   such  violence,  that  it not  only  crushed  the  head  of  the  gunner  who  had  discharged it,  but  also  decapitated  sixteen  others,  whose  heads  it  sent flying  towards  the  African  coast.    Before  it  reached  Barbary,  it carried  away  the  masts  of  three  vessels  that  were  anchored  in the  harbour,  one  behind  the  other,  then  it  penetrated  200 miles  into  the  interior,  fell  through  the  roof  of  a  peasant's  hut,  and having  deprived  a  poor  old  woman, who  was  lying  on  her  back therein,  of  the  only  tooth  she  had  left,  finally  came  to  a  stand- still in  her  throat.  Her  husband  happened  to  return  home  at this  moment,  and  finding  all  attempts  to  extract  the  ball  unavailing, the  brilliant  idea  struck  him  of  driving  it  with  a  mallet  into her  stomach,  so  that  it  might  gradually  be  absorbed  into  her system,  in  the  usual  process  of  digestion.  Our  ball  did  excellent service,  for  it  not  only  repelled  the  other  in  the  manner  just described,  but,  proceeding  as  I  intended  it  should,  it  dismounted the  very  piece  of  cannon  that  had  just  been  employed  against  us, and  flung  it  against  the  hull  of  a  ship,  where  it  fell  with  so much  force  as  to  break  its  way  through  the  bottom.  The  ship immediately  filled  and  sunk,  with  above  1,000  Spanish  sailors on  board,  besides  a  considerable  number  of  soldiers.

- Chapter 12