Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/204

 Soon after descending the hill we came upon another stronghold. We soon set fire to this town by throwing in rockets. It became too hot for the savages, and as they attempted to escape in fives and tens, they were  riddled with bullets. Here we were re-inforced by Lieutenant Murray’s and Lieutenant Emerson’s forces,  who had destroyed several towns. The natives made a stubborn resistance and even stood a charge of bayonets.

While these transactions were taking place on the island, the water also became the scene of many conflicts. Every canoe that attempted to escape from the island was overtaken by our boats, destroyed, and its  occupants became food for hungry sharks.

We destroyed all the towns, and by five o’clock all hands had returned on board ship. The boats on guard around the island were relieved every four hours. The night passed as quietly as in a country churchyard, save  for the singing of some tropical bird, or the splashing of  the water, occasioned by some monster of the deep.

Early the next morning several natives were seen on the beach, waving pieces of white tapa, the emblem of  peace with them. The commodore, with the interpreter in his gig, pulled for the shore. As they neared the edge of the reef, which was bare now, it being low water,  all the men retired, leaving a young native woman standing with the different articles of Lieutenant Underwood  and Midshipman Henry near her. She held a white cockerell in her arms, which she wanted the commodore  to accept. He declined to do so, but took the articles of clothing. The commodore knew it to be the custom