run low affairs of and and the boxes of the wounded and the dead had been ah brought m use before at about eight o clock the into the bay her commander threw some shells into one of which killed five men about their cooking pot the began to withdraw their movements were hastened by a and the remains of the party brought on board this was an unfortunate movement it gave an air of defeat to what might have been else claimed for a moderate success the numbered a hundred and forty all told they were engaged separately and fought under the worst conditions m the dark and among woods their position in the house was scarce they lost in killed and wounded � forty per cent and their spirit to the end was above question whether we think of the poor sailor lads always so pleasantly behaved in times of peace or whether we call to mind the behaviour of the two and we can only regret that brave men should stand to be exposed upon so poor a quarrel or lives cast away upon an enterprise so hopeless eight years of trouble in news of the affair reached early and always curious of these spectacles of war was immediately in the saddle near he met a chief whom he asked if there were any german dead i think there are about thirty of them knocked over said he � have you taken their heads asked � yes said the chief some foolish people did it but i have stopped them we ought not to cut off their heads when they do not cut off ours he was asked what had been done with the heads two have gone to he replied and one is buried right under where your horse is standing in a basket wrapped in this was afterwards dug up and i am told on native authority that besides the three heads two ears were taken next asked the man how he came to be going away the man of war is throwing shells said he when they stopped firing out of the house we stopped firing also so it was as well to scatter when the shells began we could have killed all the white men i wish they had been this is an ex statement and i give it for such but affairs of and the course of the affair and in particular the adventures of and testify to a surprising lack of against the about the same time or but a little earlier than this conversation the same spirit was being displayed with a party of labour had gone out to bring m the german dead when he was surprised to be suddenly fired on from the wood the boys he had with him were not but from the islands and he suddenly remembered that these might be easily mistaken for a of bidding his boys conceal themselves in a thicket this brave man walked into the open so soon as he was recognised the firing ceased and the followed him in safety this is war but there was a side to it less as drew nearer to he began to meet with hats guns and even shirts taken from the german sailors with one of these who had a hat and a gun he stopped and spoke the hat was handed up for him to look at it had the late owner s name on the inside where is he asked � eight years of trouble in � he is dead i cut his head off � you shot him � no somebody else shot him in the hip when i came he put up his hands and cried don t kill me i am a man i did not believe him and i cut his head off � have you any to fit that gun � i do not know � what has become of the belt � another fellow that and the and he won t give them to me a dreadful and silly picture of war the words of the german sailor must be regarded as imaginary how was the poor lad to speak native or the to understand german when came as far as the was yet in the bay the smoke of battle still lingered among the trees which were themselves marked with a thousand bullet wounds but the affair was over the german and were all gone and only a couple of labour boys on the scene the village of beyond was equally silent part of it was wrecked by the shells of the and still smoked the inhabitants had fled on the beach were the native boats perhaps five thou affairs of and sand dollars worth deserted by the and overlooked by the in their common hurry to escape still held eastward by the sea paths it was his hope to get a view from the other side of the towards in the way he found a house hidden in the wood and among rocks where an aged and sick woman was being tended by her elderly daughter last in that deserted piece of coast they seemed indifferent to the events which had thus left them solitary and as the daughter said did not know where was nor where it is the official that the fired first at in view of all german and some native testimony the text of s orders and the of the case no honest mind will believe it for a moment certainly the fired first as certainly they were betrayed into the engagement in the agitation of the moment and it was not till afterwards that they understood what they had done then indeed all drew a breath of wonder and delight the invincible had fallen the men of the war eight years of trouble in ships had been met in the field by the of a a superstition 