BOOTAN. 
Ill 
with an air of defiance. This sort of distant skirmish continued for 
some time; but the Raja’s people gradually advanced till they had ar¬ 
rived within a bow shot of the villages, when they paused, and seemed 
preparing to make a general assault; but, before they could execute 
this design, the insurgents suddenly sallied out, and made them pre¬ 
cipitately fall back, so that they were inclined, for the rest of the day, 
to keep a more cautious distance ; yet a party of the Raja’s made a 
feint of moving to the right, towards a village on the flank of the other 
two, which the insurgents seemed not yet to have possessed; but they 
were sufficiently alert, to defeat the attempt of the loyalists, by a timely 
and effectual opposition. The Raja’s forces, as the evening closed, 
retreated to their quarters, leaving the enemy, who were reckoned to 
be three or four hundred strong, masters of the field. But the day 
did not close without some bloodshed. Three of the wounded were 
brought to Mr. Saunders; two of them, lhe Daroga, or master of the 
horse, and another young man, were shot with arrows, that had pierced 
through the thigh; and the third received his wound just above the 
elbow, pointing upwards. He endeavoured to draw out the arrow; 
but the barbs entangling in the sinews, the shaft alone came away with 
the effort, when instantly seizing a knife by his side, the courageous 
youth cut a deep incision, and with his own band extricated the 
head. 
They were all impressed with a strong dread of poison, with which 
they apprehended the heads of the arrows to have been charged, and 
they pretended to be already sensible of its corroding pangs. They 
submitted however to be dressed, expressing little hope of life, when 
