"I had a man with me who had intermarried with the Typees, and was privileged to go among them, and I furnished him with a white flag and sent him to tell them I had come to offer peace, but was prepared for war. In a few minutes he came running back, and informed me he had met in the bushes an ambuscade of Typees, who had threatened to put him to death if he again ventured among them. In an instant afterward a shower of stones came from the bushes, and at the same moment one of the Typees darted across the pathway and was shot through the leg, but was carried off by his friends. "Lieutenant Downes arrived with his men, and I {299}gave the order to march. We entered the bushes, and were at every instant assailed by spears and stones, which came from different parts of the enemy in ambuscade. We could hear the snapping of the slings, the whistling of the stones; the spears came quivering by us, but we could not perceive from whom they came. No enemy was to be seen, not a whisper was to be heard among them. "We had advanced about a mile, and came to a small opening on the bank of a river, from the thicket on the opposite side of which we were assailed with a shower of stones, when Lieutenant Downes received a blow which shattered the bone of his left leg, and he fell. The allied tribes sat as silent observers of our operations; the sides of the mountains were still covered with them, and I as well as the Taeehs had no slight grounds to doubt the fidelity of the Happahs. A defeat would have sealed our destruction. "The Indians began to leave us, and all depended on our own exertions. I directed Mr. Shaw with four men to escort Lieutenant Downes to the beach, which reduced the number of my men to twenty-four. We soon came to a place for fording the river, in the thick bushes of the opposite bank of which the Typees made a bold stand. We endeavored in vain to clear the bushes with our musketry. {300}The stones and spears flew with augmented numbers. I directed a volley to be fired, three cheers to be given, and to dash across the river. We soon gained the opposite bank, and continued our march, rendered still more difficult by the underwood, which was here so interlaced as to make it necessary sometimes to crawl on our hands and knees. "On emerging from the swamp, we perceived a strong and extensive wall of seven feet in height, raised on an eminence crossing our road, and flanked on each side by an impenetrable thicket. In an instant afterward we were assailed by such a shower of stones, accompanied by the most horrid yells, as left no doubt that we had here to encounter their principal strength. A tree which afforded shelter from their stones enabled me, accompanied by Lieutenant Gamble, to annoy them as they rose above the wall to throw at us; but these were the only muskets that could be employed to advantage.