ing his error, he ordered his followers to fall back as
rapidly as possible on the boats.

Just then a strong body of men were seen issuing from the fort. Not a
moment was to be lost, or they might reach the boats. The commodore was
pretty well blown by his recent exercise, but, putting forth all his
strength, he led his men back even faster than they had come. As soon
as the enemy saw their approach, they hastily retreated within the
stockades.

"Now, my lads," cried the commodore, "we have the last part of the
business to accomplish. Before a quarter of an hour is over, we must be
inside that fort. I know that you can do it, and will do it."

The men replied by a loud cheer, and advanced, in high spirits at their
previous success, towards the stockades. The Arabs, who had seen their
friends beaten, lost heart from the first; and though they defended the
stockades for some minutes with considerable bravery, they quickly took
to flight as the bluejackets came tumbling down over their heads,
cutlass in hand. In a few minutes the place was won, the garrison
escaping by a western gate, as the English forced their way in over the
eastern side. The commodore's first impulse was to follow the enemy,
but there were still too many people in the fort to make such a
proceeding safe. The non-combatants, women and children, received
orders to take themselves off with such of their personal property as
they could carry, an act of leniency which surprised them not a little.
In a short time not a single inhabitant remained behind.

The guns were then spiked and dragged to a part of the fort directly
over the stream, into which they were tumbled, and from whence it would
give the Arabs no small amount of trouble to fish them out again. The
place was next set on fire in every direction, when the party, each man
carrying such booty as he had managed to pick up, left the fort to the
destruction awaiting it. The flames spread amid the wooden and
thatch-roof buildings, till the surrounding stockades caught fire, and
the whole hornets' nest was one sea of flame.

The barracoons, from which the slaves had, as it was expected, been
removed, were treated in the same manner, when the commodore, highly
satisfied with the result of the expedition, ordered the men to embark.
To get the heavy boats afloat, however, was no easy matter; the tide had
already begun to ebb; it seemed very doubtful whether they could be got
off, till the c