40 
PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
the American flag, waved it in triumph as he skipped along the 
mountains—they were attended by a large concourse of friendly na» 
tives, armed as usual, who generally kept in the rear of our mem 
Mouina alone was seen in the advance of the whole, and was well 
known by his scarlet cloak and waving plumes. In about an hour 
we lost sight of the combatants and saw no more of them until 
about four o’clock, when they were discovered descending the 
mountains on their return, the natives bearing five dead bodies 
slung on poles. 
Mr. Downes and his men soon afterwards arrived at the camp, 
overcome with the fatigue of an exercise to which they had been 
so little accustomed. He informed me that on his arrival near 
the tops of the mountains, the Happahs, stationed on the summit, 
had assailed him and his men with stones and spears; that he had 
driven them from place to place until they had taken refuge in a 
fortress, erected in a manner before described, on the brow of a steep 
hill. Here they all made a stand, to the number of between three 
and four thousand. They dared our people to ascend this hill, at 
the foot of which they had made a halt to take breath. The. word 
was given by Mr. Downes to rush up the hill; at that instant a 
stone struck him on the belly and laid him breathless on the 
ground, and at the same instant one of our people was pierced with 
a spear through his neck. This occasioned a halt, and they were 
about abandoning any farther attempt on the place: but Mr. 
Downes soon recovered, and finding himself able to walk gave or¬ 
ders for a charge. Hitherto our party had done nothing. Not 
one of the enemy had, to their knowledge, been wounded. 
They scoffed at our men, and exposed their posteriors to them, 
and treated them with the utmost contempt and derision. The 
friendly natives also began to think we were not so formidable as 
we pretended: it became, therefore, absolutely necessary that the 
fort should be taken at all hazards. Our people gave three cheers 
and rushed on through a shower of spears and stones, which the 
natives threw from behind their strong barrier, and it was not un¬ 
til our people entered the fort that they thought of retreating. 
Five were at this instant shot dead; and one in particular, fought 
until the muzzle of the piece was presented to his forehead, when 
the top of his head was entirely blown off. As soon as this place 
