Colonel Walpole soon put his men into good heart by playing off the Maroon trick of ambuscades against themselves; for he lay in wait for one of their foraging parties, cut it off, and destroyed it to a man. A week later he sent a party of the Seventeenth along the right crest of the main cockpit in order to try and discover some fresh entrance into it. The party soon encountered the Maroons and became hotly engaged. The whole force of the Seventeenth numbered but forty men, of whom a fourth had been left in reserve under the command of a sergeant. Unfortunately, when called up in support, this sergeant led his handful of men straight into the mouth of the cockpit, where, of course, there was a bullet ready for every one of them. The main body, however, kept together, and was brought off in good order when compelled to retire by want of ammunition. Of the forty men one sergeant and three men were killed, and nine men wounded--a pretty heavy loss. None the less the Maroons were considerably dismayed by this bold attack, for hitherto they had been accustomed to lie hidden while the white men poured harmless volleys into the unresisting mountains. Still more dismayed were they when Walpole, having cleared the heights of jungle, managed by hook or by crook to get a howitzer in position and began to drop shells into the cockpit. In a very short time the Maroons were driven out of this favourite position, and compelled to withdraw to the adjoining cockpit. This was a serious matter for them, for the abandoned cockpit contained a spring of water. Walpole at once followed them up with the howitzer and drove them out of their second retreat. [Sidenote: 1795.] The Maroons then withdrew to a stupendous height so as to be out of reach of the shells. But a young cornet of the Seventeenth, Oswald Werge by name, saw one of the Maroon women leave the height to draw water, followed her unseen, and thus discovered the one path that led to the Maroon position. By this path the Seventeenth advanced, and again drove out the Maroons, who now retired down a very steep precipice into a third cockpit, where there was a spring of water. The Seventeenth occupied the abandoned height, and a detachment of the 62nd Foot under Colonel Hull marched into the virgin fortress of Cudjoe. They were the first white men who had ever penetrated into it, but they could never have entered it if the Seventeenth had not cleared the way.