Several chiefs
sent their fleets, so that the native force was considerable, and it
caused no little trouble to keep them in order.

On the 11th, as they passed rapidly up the stream, the beating of gongs
and the loud yelling warned them that they were approaching their
enemies. A sudden turn in the river brought them in front of a steep
hill, which rose from the bank. As they hove in sight, several hundred
savages rose up, and gave one of their war-yells. "It was the first,"
says Captain Keppel, "I ever heard. No report from musketry or ordnance
could ever make a man's heart feel so _small_ as mine did at that horrid
yell. I had no time to think, but took a shot at them with my
double-barrel as they rushed down the steep, while we hurried past." As
the large boat came up, she gave them a dose from her heavy gun. A
barrier of stakes was now encountered, but the gig pushed through, and
found herself in the presence of three formidable-looking forts, which
immediately opened a heavy fire on her. Luckily the enemy's guns were
elevated for the range of the barrier, a few grape-shot only splashing
the water round the gig. The boat was drifting fast towards the enemy.
The banks of the river were covered with warriors, who yelled and rushed
down to secure her. With some difficulty the long gig was got round,
and, Rajah Brooke steering, she was paddled up against the stream.
During this time Captain Keppel and his coxswain kept up a fire on the
embrasures, to prevent the enemy reloading before the pinnace could
bring her twelve-pounder carronade to bear. Unfortunately she fell
athwart the barrier, and had three men wounded while thus placed. With
the aid, however, of some of the native auxiliaries, the rattan lashings
which secured the heads of the stakes were cut, and the first cutter got
through. The other boats then followed, and kept up a destructive fire
on the fort. Mr D'Aeth, who was the first to land, jumped on shore
with his crew at the foot of the hill on the top of which the nearest
fort stood, and at once rushed for the summit.

This mode of warfare--this dashing at once in the very face of their
fort--was so novel and incomprehensible to the enemy, that they fled
panic-struck into the jungle, and the leading men of the British could
scarcely get a snap-shot at them. That evening the country was
illuminated for miles by the burning of the capital, Paddi, and the
adjacent villages. The guns in the