d then dragging the stream. We remained here some days, for
the purpose of making this our grand depot; for which purpose, in the
lower house, which was better situated than the other, and not so near
the wood, we built a large and strong stockade, with six embrasures for
guns. This house we converted into store-rooms, and here we left all our
superfluous baggage. I had no superfluities; one thing on and one off
was quite enough for any man on such a service, and I often regretted,
with many of my brother officers, that we had not brought packs, like
the men, which would have carried our all safely, and entirely relieved
us from the apprehension which we now felt of losing those things not
immediately in our presence.

The domestic fowls, kept by the natives, had strayed into the adjoining
woods, and there bred, and had become very numerous. At night they
roosted on the trees, without any apparent fear of molestation. Firing
was most strictly prohibited within a mile of camp; and justly so, or we
should, if permitted, have had the soldiers firing away their
ammunition, and the camp alarmed. Many of the fowls, however, were
caught and eaten.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XIII.

In three or four days we again moved on. The 87th being the only
European corps with this part of the division, we always led the column,
or, rather, formed the advance-guard. We commenced our march; and,
rather wishing to see, instead of groping, our way, we went on through a
dense thick wood for a couple of miles, through which there was a
tolerably good road, so that our troops travelled with comparative
facility. When at the end of two miles, we came to a small open space,
where several fires were still alight and burning, and earthen pots left
behind. About the middle of this little plain was a river about
knee-deep. On the margin of the wood on the opposite side of this river,
several people were seen peeping through the green foliage, watching our
movements. We entered another thick wood, which brought us to the bank
of another river; but the road did not cross it, but went along the left
bank, under a small hill, from which it had apparently been cut by
manual labour. This was rather a dangerous place to enter. A high and
inaccessible hill was on one side, and a deep bank and river on the
other; and on the opposite side of the river, was a kind of rising bank,
behind which the enemy might be lying in ambush, and waiting till we had