, calling upon them to surrender. They replied
with yells of defiance, and were then informed that if they did not
abandon their works the ships would open fire in half-an-hour.

The half-hour having elapsed without any result, except a considerable
accession to the enemy's strength, fire was opened from the guns of the
_Torch_ and _Dover_, while the troops poured in a destructive storm of
musketry. The enemy replied with great spirit; and, although the
sixty-eight-pounder shell were crushing through the earthworks and
carrying away large portions of the parapets, some of the warriors
continued calmly up and down in full view on the most exposed portions
of the works, to encourage the others; and it was not until this
terrible fire of shell and musketry had lasted for three hours, that the
natives began to abandon their works, retiring even then very
gradually. This movement being observed, a landing was at once ordered;
and the boats, which had been collected together under cover of the
_Torch_, pulled in rapidly for the landing-place. Before, however, they
reached the shore, some 800 natives, who had occupied the extreme right
of the earthworks, which had not suffered from our fire as much as the
other portions, rushed down to oppose them.

The landing was effected in the teeth of all opposition, the troops
wading ashore and attacking the enemy with the bayonet. Colonel D'Arcy
in his despatch says:--"Nothing could exceed the gallantry of the
landing on the part of the officers and men of the 1st and 2nd West
India Regiments; and now commenced a smart skirmish with a numerous
enemy, in which our black soldiers evinced a gallantry and a
determination to close which I felt proud to witness."

While this stubborn and hand-to-hand conflict was at its height, a
shrill cry was suddenly heard in rear of the enemy, and at once, as if
by a preconcerted plan, those natives who were disputing the landing
broke and fled, while, at the same moment, a body of some 300 cavalry
debouched from the shelter of a clump of dwarf palms, and came down at
full gallop on the troops, who were already somewhat scattered in
pursuit of the retreating enemy. The men at once formed rallying
squares, and in a moment the Mandingo horsemen were amongst them,
brandishing their scimetars and discharging matchlocks and pistols. The
fire from the squares was so steady and well sustained, that, with one
exception, the enemy could effect nothing. They rode