Page:The land of fetish.pdf/103

 discovered that the anchor had been let go without orders. It was impossible to slip the cable, as it was of chain and clinched to the bottom of the boat, and there seemed to be no alternative but to leave her in the hands of the natives, when suddenly Lieutenant Corbett, who had received a severe wound on shore which rendered his right arm almost useless, ran to the stern, and, under a heavy fire, cut the chain-cable with a cold chisel. While so doing he received five different gun-shot wounds.

The "Victoria" was now got off, but the British loss had been so heavy, amounting to one officer and thirteen men killed, and four officers and fifty-eight men wounded, that it was not considered advisable to make any attempt to recover the lost boat, and the boats returned to the "Teazer." Scarcely had they reached her than some forty or fifty of the natives got into the captured boat, and started as if to attack the vessel. They paid dearly for their audacity; for a rocket fired from the "Teazer" entered her magazine and she at once blew up. At sunset the "Teazer" was got off with the rising tide, and anchored out of gun-shot for the night.

In the meantime the "Bloodhound" and the boats of her division had been warmly engaged. At 10 a.m. Lieutenant Saumarez had been despatched with