It was not possible to ascertain the number lost by the enemy, but it must have been very considerable, as it is calculated that the killed carried away by water alone amounted to not less than 150.  Many others were conveyed along the beach on mats; and twenty-seven bodies were at one period found by a party of friendly Condoes employed by the Agent to remove them; and long after this action the offensive effluvia from the wood proved that the researches of these persons were still incomplete.

The numerical force of the settlers at this period amounted to 35 persons, including six native youths not sixteen years of age.  Of this number, but one half were engaged.  After this action it was determined to contract the lines, and to surround the central houses, and stores, with a musket-proof stockade, and before night more than eighty yards of this erection were completed.

The work was carried on with no other interruption on the following day, than the necessary one of burying the dead:  and was so speedily completed that by the fourteenth of the month half the number of men were, by the contraction of the lines, relieved from camp duty:  thus obtaining for each a larger portion of rest during the day, which enabled them to perform their night watch with renewed vigour.  An additional gun was mounted and posted on the same day, and every hour witnessed some progress in the discipline or defences of the colonists.

It was at this period that a friendly message, accompanied by a small present, consisting of the country’s produce, sent by Prince Tom Bassa, a chief of some distinction, inspired something like encouragement to the hopes of the desolate little band; but it cannot be denied that their despondency outweighed their hopes, on discovering that, exclusive of rice, there remained but fifteen days provision in store.  Each individual was now placed on an allowance per diem, scarcely sufficient to sustain animal strength, especially when such constant demands were made upon their industry and vigilance.  No supplies could be obtained from the natives, in whose hands seven infant children were retained as captives, added to which the enemy’s troops, though repelled, had not dispersed, and the colonists remained in daily expectation of a fresh incursion upon their little territory; to complete all came the cruel conviction that their stock of ammunition was insufficient to maintain more than an hour’s defence.

These considerations, as well as the fear that the infant captives might fall victims to their infuriated enemies, determined the Agent to make another attempt to open a treaty for peace with the hostile chiefs, and after great difficulty he succeeded in conveying a message to their council (then in the act of debating a second attack), descriptive of the wishes of the colonists to maintain peace, and of their equal determination to oppose an invasion, with measures still more destructive than those under which their assailants had already