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Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
dreadful effect of the guns. Addressing his 
men, he thanked them for their bravery, and 
Mr. Mariner and his companions in particular 
for the great assistance rendered by them. 
“ Some few of the enemy, who had escaped 
the general slaughter, were taken prisoners. 
They gave a curious description of the effect of 
the guns. They declared that when a cannon 
ball entered a house it did not proceed straight 
forward, but went all round the place, as if 
seeking for men to kill; it then passed out of 
the house and entered another, still in search of 
food for its vengeance, and so on to a third, etc. 
Sometimes one would strike the great corner 
post of a house and bring it all down together. 
The garrison chiefs, seeing all this dreadful 
mischief going forward, rendered still more 
tremendous by their own imaginations, sat in 
consultation upon one of the large canoes just 
mentioned, and came to a determination to rush 
out upon the white men and take possession of 
the guns. This was scarcely resolved upon 
when a shot struck the canoe on which they 
were seated and shattered it in pieces. This so 
damped their courage that they ran for security 
to one of the inner houses of the garrison, only 
