any approached the hills the natives, dressed in clouts, with
their bodies painted, and muskets glistening in the sun, descended to
meet them, fighting from the long grass. After delivering their fire,
they would retreat, and form ambuscades, into which the men from the
ships frequently fell in charging after them. In one of these
Lieutenant-Commander Mackenzie was mortally wounded. After fighting
under the intensely hot sun for six hours, during which period several
of the attacking party suffered sunstroke, they returned to their
ships, the expedition having proved a failure.

The navy performed a valuable maritime service in 1867, by locating and
surveying a shoal which was reported to exist twenty miles west of
Georges Shoal, and directly in the track of vessels bound to and from
Europe. The shoal was found by Commander Chandler with the United States
steamer "Don," and mariners were made cognizant of a danger which
probably had been fatal to many vessels. In the same year the "Sacramento,"
Captain Napoleon Collins, while on an important cruise, was wrecked on
the reefs off the mouth of the Kothapalem River in the Bay of Bengal.
The vessel proved a total wreck, but without loss of life. Those aboard
effected thrilling escapes by means of rafts. The navy suffered another
misfortune in 1868, in the drowning of Rear-Admiral Bell, commander of
the Asiatic squadron, Lieutenant-Commander J. H. Reed, and ten of the
crew of the Admiral's barge, which was upset in crossing the bar near
Osaka, few days after the opening by the Japanese of that port and Hioto
to foreigners. Another disaster occurred in 1869. Twenty-seven officers
and men of the "Fredonia" were drowned at Arica, on the western coast of
South America The "Fredonia" and "Wateree" were resting at anchor when a
shock of earthquake was felt. The sea receded and left the former vessel
on the bottom; a moment afterward the wave rolled back, breaking the
ship into fragments. The "Wateree" was thrown upon the shore; its
position was such that the expense of launching would have been greater
than the worth of the vessel, and it was consequently sold. A year
previous to its catastrophe, the "Monongahela," in the harbor of St.
Croix, was swept from her moorings by the force of an earthquake, and
carried by a wave over the warehouses into one of the streets of the
town. Five of her crew were lost. The vessel, after an interval of some
months, was relaunched.

The Cuban reb