Sept.] WALLACE'S ISLAND— MORE TREACHERY. 449 



a boat in, to receive his fruit, and pay him for it. Suspecting some 

 treachery, however, on the present occasion, I would allow no boat to 

 meet him. He remained there, holding his fruit up to view, for about 

 a quarter of an hour ; when, finding no preparations on foot to meet 

 him, he started for Wallace's Island. 



This circumstance surprised us not a little, as not one of the natives 

 had landed on that island since we first took possession of it. In the 

 next moment, to our utter astonishment, we saw about one hundred 

 canoes put off from the back side of the Massacre Island, and all 

 steering for Wallace's Island, in order of battle. Their object was now 

 too manifest to be mistaken, and we took our measures accordingly. 

 The guns of the Antarctic were immediately run out ; and without the 

 least noise, our preparations were in a moment completed. 



Henneen was the first to reach the island and the first to land, which 

 he did on the beach directly in front of the castle. The instant his 

 foot had touched the sand, he gave the horrid warhoop ; and the 

 echoes of the infernal yell were still busy, when, with an answering 

 shout, out darted from the thicket in rear of the castle two hundred 

 painted devils, armed with bows and war-clubs ! These must have 

 secreted themselves there the night before, unperceived by our look-out 

 at the castle, which was now about to be assailed on two sides at once, 

 in front and rear. When the assailants had advanced to within one 

 hundred and fifty yards of their object, they opened upon it with their 

 archery, and showers of arrows rattled on its roof and sides like a squall 

 of hail. They still advanced, and still discharged their arrows, with 

 deafening yells, and looks of desperate ferocity, till within fifteen yards 

 of the yet silent battery, in the sides and roof of which were now stick- 

 ing about three thousand arrows. 



Obedient to previous orders, in anticipation of such an emergency, 

 our men in the garrison were careful not to waste their ammunition, 

 but waited for the savages to come to close quarters, some of them being 

 within forty feet before a gun was fired from the fortress. The swivels 

 and muskets then spoke to some purpose ; while the Antarctic opened 

 her larboard battery on the canoes, which were all between her and 

 the now blazing castle. The savages had not anticipated such a ter- 

 rific reaction ; desperate as they were, they could not stand the fury 

 of the shock ; but nastily gathered up their wounded, and part of the 

 killed, and made a precipitate and disorderly retreat, leaving many of 

 their war-implements scattered about the field. 



The roar of our cannon, echoed and re-echoed as it was from every 

 island in the group, evidently terrified the savages more than the mys- 

 terious fall of their companions. Unlike their arrows, our messengers 

 of death were invisible — " unseen, but felt," and their fatal effect was 

 naturally attributed to the awful bellowing of the blazing engines, 

 instead of their contents ; as some people tremble at a peal of thunder, 

 who are unmoved by the lightning's flash. They considered themselves 

 in danger so long as they could hear the sound of our guns ; which, it 

 being perfectly calm, fairly made the forests tremble, as it reverberated 

 through the islands, and died away among the distant coral reefs 

 Great numbers of them took the water, like terrified seals, and sought 



Ff 



