nd the youngest stabbed to the heart: the mother
instinctively springing through the window to preserve her suckling
babe, providentially escaped, but the babe recoiling through fright, was
left behind and fell into the enemy's hands.

It was not possible to ascertain the number lost by the enemy, but it
must have been very considerable, as it is calculated that the killed
carried away by water alone amounted to not less than 150. Many others
were conveyed along the beach on mats; and twenty-seven bodies were at
one period found by a party of friendly Condoes employed by the Agent to
remove them; and long after this action the offensive effluvia from the
wood proved that the researches of these persons were still incomplete.

The numerical force of the settlers at this period amounted to 35
persons, including six native youths not sixteen years of age. Of this
number, but one half were engaged. After this action it was determined
to contract the lines, and to surround the central houses, and stores,
with a musket-proof stockade, and before night more than eighty yards of
this erection were completed.

The work was carried on with no other interruption on the following day,
than the necessary one of burying the dead: and was so speedily
completed that by the fourteenth of the month half the number of men
were, by the contraction of the lines, relieved from camp duty: thus
obtaining for each a larger portion of rest during the day, which
enabled them to perform their night watch with renewed vigour. An
additional gun was mounted and posted on the same day, and every hour
witnessed some progress in the discipline or defences of the colonists.

It was at this period that a friendly message, accompanied by a small
present, consisting of the country's produce, sent by Prince Tom Bassa,
a chief of some distinction, inspired something like encouragement to
the hopes of the desolate little band; but it cannot be denied that
their despondency outweighed their hopes, on discovering that, exclusive
of rice, there remained but fifteen days provision in store. Each
individual was now placed on an allowance per diem, scarcely sufficient
to sustain animal strength, especially when such constant demands were
made upon their industry and vigilance. No supplies could be obtained
from the natives, in whose hands seven infant children were retained as
captives, added to which the enemy's troops, though repelled, had not
dispersed, and th