PORTER^S JOURNAL. 



darted from tree to tree) although we had kept up a scat- 

 tering fire on them. We at length came to a small open- 

 ing on the bank of a river, from the thicket on the oppo- 

 site 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, and 

 to have returned back 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 Taeehs, had no slight grounds to doubt the 

 fidelity of the Happahs. A defeat v/ould no doubt have 

 sealed our destruction. I had come with a force very 

 inadequate to reduce them to terms, having received 

 wrong impressions as to the country through which we had 

 to pass. But since we had come it was necessary some- 

 thing should be done to convince them of our superiority. 

 The Indians began to leave us, all depended on our own 

 exertions, and no time was to be lost in deliberation. I 

 therefore directed Mr. Shaw with four men to escort lieu- 

 tenant Downes to the beach ; this, with the party I had left 

 for the protection of the boats, reduced my number to 

 twenty-four men. As we continued our march the num- 

 ber of our allies became reduced, and even the brave 

 Mouina, the first to expose himself, began to hang back* 

 While he 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 being remarkably steep, but particularly on the side 

 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 



voh. IK 12 



