336 DESCRIPTION OF A SLAVE-HUNT.

stabbed by the spears of the natives, before they could rise on their feet, and, in their fall, tore several of their advancing comrades down with them into the precipice and ravines below. The cannonade employed against the village was ineffective, and forced to be silenced to avoid injuring their own men. The struggle was fearful, and the event for some time doubtful, the soldiers, however, at last succeeded in obtaining a footing on the heights, and were able to employ their arms ; the bayonet now decided the victory in their favour, and the village was soon taken, in spite of the most obstinate resistance on the part of the negroes. The havoc became frightful : everyone who offered the slightest resistance was cut down, children, women, and old men were put to the bayonet, the huts were fired, and the whole place was pillaged ; in short, every species of cruelty was perpetrated on these ill-fated victims. Those who fell into the hands of the victorious enemy were immediately dragged down into the camp ; whilst those who endeavoured to escape, by concealing themselves in caverns and ravines, were either hunted out by fire and smoke, or suffocated in their place of shelter ; every description of atrocity was practised, nor did the carnage cease until the very last man of this ill-starred tribe was exterminated or led away in captivity. All the inconsiderable property of the natives which the troops could not carry away with them as plunder was destroyed, and the whole