off his coat and took
up Murdoch's work in what might be termed the operating-room. I,
however, was not considered a bad case, and was accordingly placed in
another smaller room, or ward, along with about half a dozen others in
like condition with myself.

While these arrangements were proceeding, a fatigue-party had been busy
at work in a secluded spot chosen by the skipper, at some distance from
the houses; and before we, the wounded, had all been comfortably
disposed of for the night, the dead Nugent included--were laid to rest
with such honourable observance as the exigencies of the moment would
permit.

The casualties in this last affair were, of course, by no means all on
the British side; we had suffered pretty severely in the three affairs
in which we had been involved since the departure of the boat expedition
from the ship, our total amounting to eleven killed and twenty-six
wounded; but the losses on the part of the enemy had been very
considerably greater, their dead, in this last fight alone, numbering
nineteen killed, while thirty-three wounded had been hurriedly bestowed
in one of the houses, to be attended to by the surgeons as soon as our
own people had been patched up; thus Hutchinson and Murdoch were kept
busy the whole of that night, while Copplestone, Keene, and Parkinson--
the three uninjured midshipmen--were impressed as ward-attendants to
keep watch over our own wounded, and administer medicine, drink, and
nourishment from time to time.

It was a most fortunate circumstance for all hands that this last
factory had been discovered and captured; for we were thus provided with
cool, comfortable living quarters, instead of being compelled to camp
out on the exposed beach opposite the wreck; and to this circumstance
alone may be attributed the saving of several of the more severely
wounded, to say nothing of the fact that we now occupied a position
which could be effectually defended from such attacks as that to which
we had been exposed on the spit during the previous night. Moreover, it
relieved the captain of a very heavy load of anxiety, since, but for the
fortunate circumstance of this capture, he would have had no alternative
but to have continued in the occupation of our makeshift camp on the
spit, it being impossible for him to undertake a boat voyage to Sierra
Leone with so many wounded on his hands. It is true that he might have
sent away the launch, with an officer and half a dozen h