11 p.m.
`` The place was two miles long and half a mile wide , and protected by no less than ten sea-batteries and two strong forts -- one called Belgica , and the other Nassau . They commanded each other , as they did the ten sea-batteries . The first alone mounted fifty-two heavy guns ; and altogether there were no less than one hundred and thirty-eight guns in the place . Having run in within two cables ' length of the shore , we dropped our anchors , and at 11 p.m. the boats under the command of Captain Cole shoved off with three hundred and ninety men , including officers . The place we were to pull for was the east point of Banda . What a night it was -- blowing and raining like fury and dark as pitch ! but that , in many respects , was all the better for us .