At this critical moment a neighboring chief, known to the whites as Po Adam, came to their rescue. He not only guided the boat through the surf, but by brandishing his sabre overawed the waiting natives in the canoes, and Captain Endicott got safely out to sea. There he picked up the four sailors who were swimming from the _Friendship_, and then all went to a settlement some distance away, called Muckie. The sailors said that no less than twenty natives had come off to the ship in the first boat. At first they had scattered over the deck with no arms in sight and acting as if full of curiosity. The mate, who had at first been alarmed by the numbers, was deceived by their apparent innocence, and began taking the pepper on board. At that two or three natives sauntered carelessly to his side and, as he leaned over the rail to get hold of a package of pepper, they drove their daggers into his back. Five of the ship’s crew ran to aid the mate, but the natives killed two of these and made prisoners of the other three, whom they reserved, as alleged, for torture. The remainder of the crew, four in number, jumped overboard. [Illustration: The Action at Quallah Battoo, February 6, 1832. _From an aquatint by Smith of a drawing made on board the “Potomac” in the offing._] At Muckie were three American ships, and these volunteered to go to Quallah Battoo and demand the return of the _Friendship_. The chief of the settlement told them to “come and take her,” when the demand was made, and with the aid of the guns that their ships carried, they did it. But the ship had been looted, the natives getting among other things $12,000 in coin. The total loss to the owners was placed at $40,000. So runs the story as told by the white traders. A year later (February 6, 1832), the American frigate _Potomac_, Captain John Downes, anchored off Quallah Battoo. She was disguised as a merchantman, but when a boat went toward the shore taking soundings, the natives assumed a threatening attitude, in spite of the slovenly dress of the crew. Accordingly a midnight attack was planned and carried out. The natives had forts and cannon, and citadels within the forts, to which they retired when the outer fort-walls were carried, and where they fought with the desperation of men who preferred death to surrender. By daylight two of the forts were carried in spite of the fierce resistance. Even the women fought bravely. The wife of a chief was particularly mentioned for her courage and her skill with the sabre. They were “fighting with that undaunted firmness which is characteristic of bold and determined spirits, and displaying such an utter carelessness of life as would have honored a better cause,” as an officer of the _Potomac_ wrote, but they could not stand against the superior tactics of the civilized race.