and are deserving of honourable
mention."

In February, 1859, the town of Porto Lokkoh, distant some forty miles
from Sierra Leone, and on the Sierra Leone River, was burned and
pillaged by a body of Soosoos who had, for some time back, established
themselves at Kambia, on the Great Scarcies River. For previous outrages
committed by them, Kambia had been bombarded by a naval squadron under
Commodore Wise on February 1st, 1858, after which the Soosoos had
entrenched themselves in a stockaded work, or war fence, near Kambia.
There they had been suffered to remain, but the destruction of Porto
Lokkoh, the chief _entrepot_ of the Sierra Leone trade, necessitated
further measures being taken against them.

Consequently, on March 20th, 1859, the Governor of Sierra Leone, Colonel
Stephen Hill, proceeded with a force of 203 men of the 1st West India
Regiment, under Major A.W. Murray, in H.M.S. _Vesuvius_, _Trident_, and
_Spitfire_, to the Great Scarcies River, where they arrived at daybreak
on the 22nd. The officers of the regiment serving with the expedition
were Major Murray, Brevet-Major Pratt, Lieutenants Fitzgerald, Mackay,
and Mawe, Ensigns Ormsby and Temple. Colonel Hill, in his despatch,
says:

"The troops having landed to the right of the town, I formed the
detachment of the 1st West India Regiment, under Major Murray, into four
divisions; and the marines formed, under the command of Captain Hill,
2nd West India Regiment, A.D.C., another division. A party of the former
corps, acting as gunners, accompanied the Marine Artillery, who took
charge of two mountain howitzers.

"Having extended one division in skirmishing order, I advanced; and,
finding the first stockade deserted I passed on to the furthest one,
which was then occupied by the sailors of the second division of boats
under Commander Close. I then proceeded to the extreme left of all the
defences, and halted in clear ground to await the arrival of our native
allies. Shortly afterwards Commodore Wise sent to inform me that the
enemy, who had retired before us with some loss, were in the jungle to
our left at the head of some rocks, on which they could cross the river
at low water. I immediately extended two divisions of the 1st West India
Regiment as skirmishers, with the marines supporting one, and a division
of the 1st West India the other, leaving one division in reserve in
charge of the howitzers, after having first fired some rounds of shell
into the j