umps of dwarf palm. The guns were at once placed in
position for breaching the stockade, and fire was opened with wonderful
precision. A few rounds only had been expended, when a large body of
natives from the disaffected and neighbouring town of Burnfut made a
sudden and determined onslaught on our flank, charging furiously forward
with brandished scimetars. This was met by a party of French marines and
the detachments of the 1st and 2nd West India Regiments, who, after
firing a volley at a very close range, charged gallantly with the
bayonet and speedily routed the enemy, who took refuge in a neighbouring
copse. Being ordered to dislodge them from this cover, the detachments
of the 1st and 2nd West India Regiments advanced in skirmishing order,
and after a short but sharp conflict, drove them out on the further
side.

After a bombardment of an hour and a half, seeing that the enemy
extinguished the thatched roofs of their houses as fast as they were
ignited, and that the ammunition was becoming exhausted,
Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connor determined to carry the stockade by storm.
The detachments of the West India regiments formed up in the centre, a
division of French marines being on either flank, and the whole dashed
forward to the assault in the face of a tremendous fire of musketry that
was opened throughout the entire length of the loop-holed stockade. In a
few seconds the troops were under the stockade, which was composed of
the stout trunks of trees, standing some eighteen feet high, and braced
on the inner side by cross-beams. A temporary check was here experienced
(the men having no ladders for escalading), during which the Mandingoes
kept up a close fire from their upper tier of loop-holes, while others
crouching in the ditch in rear hewed and cut at the feet and legs of the
troops through the apertures in the stockade on a level with the ground.
The check was, however, of short duration, for the British opened fire
on the enemy through their own loop-holes, and drove them back, while
others, clambering over the rough defences, effected an entrance.

After this, the Mandingoes offered but a feeble resistance, and soon
fled into the open from the further side of the town. Here they were
pursued and shot down by the irregular contingent, who had been sent to
cut off their retreat as soon as it was seen that the stockade was
carried. The enemy's loss during the assault was exceedingly heavy, the
ditch in rear of th