Another launch was ahead of us and was meeting the fire too, but in decending a rapid it got fast and closed the road to us. The pilot tried to tum around and retreat but in so doing the boat ran aground. The other launch got Joose and was off, but we were stuck and at the mercy of the robbers who poured a fusillade into the sides of the boat—the side on which I was lying—and the dust began to fly round my head as the bullets came whizzing through the boards. I was lying lengthwise along the launch, and fearing lest I get shot I got down on the floor} with the others and squeezed myself in between a fat man and a thin woman and put my handbag at my head for protection.
A few moments later my berth was pierced by three bullets, two of which would have hit me had I been there; one in the head and the other in the hips. The third bullet was too high to hit me unless I had my knees up. A fourth bullet entered about two feet from my head and two more came whizzing through where I was lying. A_ bullet went through the left side of my open vest just where my heart is usually, but I do not know whether this was done when I had the vest for a pillow, or after I put the vest on. I had so many bullets whistling around me all morning on the boat and on th: land that I do not know just when the thing happened. The heel my slipper which was under my pillow was also knocked o1
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.