THE MUTINY. 17 



and effectually sheltered himself from about fifty shots aimed 

 at him. In this position he rode furiously down a steep hill 

 leading from the barracks to the church, and was out of 

 danger. His escape appears extraordinary : but he got safe 

 to town, and thence to St. James's, and in a short time, 

 considering^ it is eleven miles distant, broucfht out a strongr 

 detachment of European troops; these, however, did not 

 arrive until the affair was over. 



" In the meantime a part of the officers' quarters w^as bravely 

 defended by two o]d African soldiers, Sergeant Merry and 

 Corporal Plague. The latter stood in the gallery near the 

 room in v/hich were the colours; he was ineffectually fired at 

 by some hundreds, yet he kept his post^ shot two of the 

 mutineers, and, it is said, w^ounded a third. Such is the 

 difference between a man acquainted with the use of fire- 

 arms and those who handle them as mops are held. 



" In the meantime Colonel Bush got to a police-station 

 above the barracks, and got muskets and a few cartridges from 

 a discharged African soldier who was in the police establish- 

 ment. Being joined by the policemen. Corporal Craven ^ and 

 Ensign Pogson, they concealed themselves on an eminence 

 above, and as the mutineers (about 100 in number) ap- 

 proached, the fire of muskets opened on them from the little 



^ This man, who was a friend of Daaga's, owed his life to a solitary act of 

 humanity on the part of the chief of this wild tragedy. A musket was 

 levelled at him^ when Daaga jmshed it aside, and said, "N"ot this man." 



VOL. II. C 



