ey were only driven back into the bush by repeated volleys and a final
charge with the bayonet.

By this time fully one-third of the men who had landed having been
killed, and a great number wounded, the order was given to retire, which
was done steadily, the ground being contested inch by inch. At this time
Company Sergeant-Major Scanlan, of the 3rd West India Regiment, and six
men who were covering the retreat, fell, the former mortally wounded;
and some of the bolder of the natives, rushing out of their concealment,
seized Deputy-Assistant-Commissary Frith, and dragged him away into the
bush, where he was barbarously murdered in cold blood. Scanlan was
lying in the narrow path, his chest riddled with bullets, when the chief
fetish priest of the place, to encourage the natives to make further
efforts, sprang upon a ruined wall in front of him, and began dancing an
uncouth dance, accompanying it with savage yells and significant
gestures to the dying man. He paid dearly for his rashness, however, for
Scanlan, collecting his strength for a last supreme effort, seized his
loaded rifle, which was fortunately lying within reach, and discharged
it at the gesticulating savage, who threw up his arms and fell dead. The
next moment Scanlan was surrounded by a horde of infuriated barbarians,
and his body hacked into an undistinguishable mass.

The troops, sadly diminished in number, at last reached that portion of
the mangrove creek where they had left the boats. Of these there had
been originally but two, and one having at the commencement of the
action been used to convey Lieutenant-Commander Nicolas and Mr. Dillet,
under the charge of Surgeon Bradshaw, to the ship, one only remained for
the men to embark in. The tide having fallen, this was lying out near
the entrance of the creek, separated by an expanse of reeking mud from
the shore. The men, seeing their last chance of safety cut off, threw
themselves into the mud, in which many sank and were no more seen. Some
few, however, succeeded in floundering along, half wading and half
swimming, until they reached her, and climbed in. She was, however, so
riddled with bullets, that she filled and sank almost immediately.

Captain Fletcher, Lieutenant Wylie, Lieutenant Strachan, and Lieutenant
Vincent, with some thirty men, endeavoured to make a last stand upon a
small islet of mud and sand, near the left bank of the creek; but
Lieutenant Wylie was shot dead almost at once, and Lie