terror, and informed me he had met in the bushes an ambuscade of Typees, who, regardless of his flag of truce, which he displayed to them, had driven him back with blows, and had threatened to put him to death if he again ventured among them; and in an instant afterwards we had a confirmation of his statement in a shower of stones which came from the bushes; at the same moment one of them darted across the pathway and was shot through the leg, but was carried off by his friends. Hostilities had now commenced. Lieutenant Downes had arrived with his men, and I gave the orders to march. Mauina, as having forgot the difference which had taken place between us, placed himself, as usual, in advance; we entered the bushes, and were at every instant assailed by spears and stones which came from the different parties of the enemy in ambuscade: we could hear the snapping of the slings, the whistling of the stones; the spears came quivering by us, but we could not perceive from whom they came-no enemy was to be seen-not a whisper was to be heard among them. To have remained still would have proved fatal to us, to have retreated would have convinced them of our fears and our incapacity to injure them; our only safety lay in advancing and endeavouring to clear the thicket, which I had been informed was of no great extent.

We had advanced about a mile and received no injury, nor had we reason to believe we had done any to the enemy, (who we could only get a glimpse of as they darted from tree to tree,) although we had kept up a scattering fire on them; we at length came to a small opening on the bank of a river, from the thicket on the opposite side of which we were assailed with a shower of stones, when Lieutenant Downes received a blow which shattered the bone of his left leg, and he fell. We had left parties in ambush in our rear, which we had not been able to dislodge, and to trust him to the Indians alone to take back was hazarding too much; I was fearful of weakening my force by sending a party to escort him back, and to have returned would have been construed by the allied tribes into a defeat. They had taken no active part; they sat as silent observers of our operations; the sides of the mountains were still covered with them, and myself,

as well as the Tayeehs had no slight grounds to doubt the fidelity of the Happahs; a defeat would no doubt have sealed our de struction. I had come with a force very inadequate to reduce them to terms, as I had received wrong impressions as to the country through which we had to pass; but since we had come, it was necessary something should be done to convince them of our superiority. The Indians all began to leave us; all depended upon our own exertions, and no time was to be lost in deliberation. I therefore directed Mr. Shaw, with four men, to escort him to the beach; this, with the party I had left for the protection of the boats, reduced my number to 24 men. As we continued our march the number of our allies became reduced, and even the brave Mauina, the first to expose himself, began to hang back. While he had kept in advance he had, by the quickness of his sight, which was astonishing, put us on our guard as the stones and spears came, and enabled us to elude them; but now they came too thick even for him to withstand. We soon came to the place for fording the river, in the thick bushes of the opposite banks of which the Typees, who were here very numerous, made a bold stand, and showered on us their spears and other missiles; here our advance was for a few minutes checked; the banks of the river were remarkably steep, but particularly on the side where we were, which would render our retreat difficult and dangerous in case of a repulse; the stream was rapid, the water deep, and the fording difficult and hazardous, on account of the exposed situation we should be in while crossing; we endeavoured in vain to clear the bushes of the opposite banks with our musketry, but the stones and spears flew with augmented force and numbers; finding that we could not dislodge them, I directed a volley to be fired, three cheers to be given, and to dash across the river; we soon gained the opposite bank, and continued our march, rendered still more difficult by the underwood which was here interlaced to that degree as to make it necessary sometimes to crawl on our hands and knees to get along; we were harassed as usual by the Typees for about a quarter of a mile through a thicket, which at almost any other time I should have considered impassable. Mauina and two or three others of the natives had kept with us, the others had not crossed the river. We soon came to a small space cleared of the VOL. IV. New Series.

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small trees and the underwood; the natives had ceased to annoy us, and we had hoped soon to have arrived at their village, which I had been informed was at no great distance, and on emerging from the swamp we felt new life and spirits; but this joy was of short duration, for on casting up our eyes we perceived a strong and extensive wall of 7 feet in height, raised on an eminence crossing our road, and flanked on each side by an impenetrable thicket, and in an instant afterwards we were assailed by a shower of stones, accompanied by the most horrid yells, which left no doubt in our minds that we had here to encounter their principal strength, and that we should here meet with much resistance in passing this barrier. It fortunately happened that a tree which afforded me shelter from their stones, enabled me, accompanied by Lieutenant Gamble, to annoy them as they would raise above the wall to throw them. These were the only muskets which could be employed to any advantage, others kept up a scattering fire without effect; finding we could not dislodge them, I gave orders for pushing on and endeavouring to take it by storm, but some of my men had by this time expended all their cartridges, and there were but few who had more than three or four remaining. This discouraging news threw a damp on the spirits of the whole of us; without ammunition our muskets were rendered inferior to the weapons of the Typees, and if we could not advance there could be no doubt we should be under the necessity of fighting our way back; and to attempt this with our few remaining cartridges would be hazarding too much: our only safety now depended on holding our ground until we could procure a fresh supply of ammunition, and in reserving the few charges on hand until it could be brought to us. I mentioned my intentions to my people, exhorted them to save their ammunition as much as possible, and despatched Lieutenant Gamble with a detachment of four men to the beach, there to take a boat and proceed to the Essex Junior for a fresh supply.

We were from the time of his departure chiefly occupied in dodging the stones, which came with redoubled force and numbers. Our fire had become slackened, a few muskets only occasionally were fired to convince them we were not disposed to retreat. My number was now reduced to 19 men, there was ne

officer but myself, the Indians had all deserted me except Mauina, and to add to our critical and dangerous situation, three of the men remaining with me were knocked down with stones. Mauina begged me to retreat, crying, "Mattee! Mattee!" The wounded entreated me to permit the others to carry them to the beach, but I had none to spare to accompany them; I saw no hopes of succeeding against them so long as they kept their strong hold, and determined to endeavour to draw them out by a feigned retreat, and by this means to gain some advantage, for to return without gaining some advantage, would, I believed, have rendered an attack from the Happahs certain. I communicated my intentions, directed the wounded to be taken care of, gave orders for all to run until we were concealed by the bushes, and then halt; we retreated for a few paces, and in an instant the Typees rushed on us with hideous yells; the first and second which advanced were killed at the distance of a few paces, and those who attempted to carry them off were wounded; this checked them; they abandoned their dead, and precipitately retreated to their fort. Not a moment was now to be lost in gaining the opposite side of the river, and taking advantage of the terror they were thrown into: we marched off with our wounded. Scarcely had we crossed the river before we were attacked with stones, but here they halted, and I returned to the beach much fatigued and harassed by march⚫ing and fighting, and with no contemptible opinion of the enemy we had to encounter, or the difficulties we should have to surmount in conquering them.

Second Battle of the Typees.

A large assemblage of Typee warriors were posted at the foot of the mountain, and dared us to descend. In the rear was a fortified village, secured by strong stone walls; drums were beating. and conches were sounding in several parts, and we soon found they were disposed to make every effort to oppose us. I gave orders to descend, Mauina offered himself as jour guide, and I directed him to lead us to their principal village; but finding the fatigue of going down the mountain greater than I expected, I gave orders to halt before crossing the river, to give time for the rear to close, which had become much spread, and that we might

all rest. As soon as we reached the foot of the mountain we were annoyed by a shower of stones from the bushes and behind the stone walls. But as we were also enabled to shelter ourselves behind others, and being short of ammunition, I would not permit any person to fire. After resting a few minutes I directed the scouting party to gain the opposite bank of the river, and followed with the main body; we were greatly annoyed with stones, and before all had crossed the fortified village was taken without any loss on our side. Their chief warrior and another were killed, and several wounded; they retreated only to the stone walls, situated on higher ground, where they continued to sling their stones and throw their spears; three of my men were wounded, and many of the Typees killed before we dislodged them: parties were sent out in different directions to scour the woods, and another fort was taken after some resistance. But the party, overpowered by numbers, were compelled to retreat to the main body, after keeping possession of it half an hour.

We were waiting in the first fort taken for the return of our scouting parties. A multitude of Tayeehs and Happahs were with us, and many were in the outskirts of the village, seeking for plunder. Lieutenant M'Knight had driven a party from a strong wall on a high ground, and had taken possession of it, when a large party of Typees, who had been laying in ambush, rushed by his fire, and darted into the fort with their spears. The Tayechs and Happahs all ran. The Typees approached within pistol shot, but on the first fire retreated precipitately, crossing the fire of Mr. M'Knight's party, and although none fell, we had reason to believe that many were wounded. The spears and stones were flying from the bushes in every direction, and although we killed and wounded in this place great numbers of them, we were satisfied, from the opposition made, that we should have to fight our whole way through the valley.

It became now necessary to guard against a useless consump tion of our ammunition. The scouting parties had returned, and some had expended all their cartridges. I exhorted them to be more careful of them, and after having given them a fresh supply, forbid any firing from the main body, unless we should be attacked by great numbers, I now left a party in this place posted in a