The general attack, which took place early in the morning, was conducted with much bravery. The road to the town was studded with sharp stakes, by which many of our people suffered severely. The enemy in the meantime remained within their entrenchments, protecting themselves from our shot by sitting in holes dug in the ground; and on our advancing up to them they fought with desperation, surrounding their wives and children, and determining to die to the last man rather than surrender. Our troops were sometimes engaged hand to hand with the enemy, who opposed our bayonets and swords with their _krisses_ and _klewangs_. At length Colonel De Steurs, finding that many of our men, with a captain and a first lieutenant, had fallen, determined to draw off our small body of heroes, with the intention of renewing the attack with the reserve; but this was found impracticable, as the latter, which consisted only of a small number of seamen from the frigate, had already sustained considerable loss. The retreat was therefore sounded, and thus, for the fourth time, had our efforts proved unavailing. On this occasion, also, one-third of the attacking force was placed _hors de combat_. We were, nevertheless, convinced that had a correct report been given to the government of the force of the enemy, and had our proceedings been conducted with order and regularity, the victory must infallibly have been on our side. It is a consolation, however, to know, that although the enemy maintained their position, they experienced, in a forcible manner, the superiority of our courage; for notwithstanding the relaxation of discipline which at first prevailed, no one can deny that our men displayed much personal bravery. The expedition, although unsuccessful, had therefore the effect of inspiring the people of Supa with a dread of the Dutch arms. According to the account of trustworthy natives, their loss had been very great; indeed, their successes never gave them sufficient confidence to emerge from behind their entrenchments. We now endeavoured to reduce them by a close blockade, but in this we were also unsuccessful; and this object was not effected until six months afterwards, when General Geer appeared before the place with a force much greater than that employed on the previous occasion.