NARRATIVE OF AN 



van-gut7rd, and a fmall party of the rangers, at this time 

 rulhing forward, foon came to a fine field of rice and 

 Indian corn : we here made a halt for the other troops, 

 particularly to give time for our rear to clofe up, fome 

 of whom were at leaft two miles behind us ; and dur- 

 ing which period we might have been cut to pieces, 

 the enemy, unknown to us, having furrounded the field 

 in which we were, as we were afterwards informed . 



In about half an hour the whole body joined us, when 

 we inflantly proceeded by cutting through a fmall de- 

 file of the wood, into which we had no fooner entered, 

 than a heavy fire commenced from every fide, the re- 

 bels retiring, and we advancing, until we arrived in the 

 moil beautiful field of ripe rice, in the form of an ob- 

 long fquare, from which the re/^e/ town appeared at a 

 diflance, in the form of an amphitheatre, fheltered from 

 the fun by the foliage of a few lofty trees, the whole 

 prefenting a CQUp-d'ceil romantic and enchanting be- 

 yond conception. In this field the firing was kept up,, 

 like one continued peal of thunder, for above forty mi- 

 nutes, during which time our black warriors behaved 

 with wonderful intrepidity and fkill. The white fol- 

 diers were too eager, and fired over one another at ran- 

 dom, yet I could perceive a few of them acl with the 

 utmofl coolnefs, and imitate the rangers with great 

 effect; amongfl thefe was nozv the once-daunted Fowlerj, 

 who being roufed from his tremor by the firing at the 

 beginning of the onfetj. had rufhed to the front, and fully 



re-ei^ablifbed 



