A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 186: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A QUEER RACE. Ae orders as I deemed necessary. They were full of fight and confident of success—rather too confident, in fact. ‘he men were as eager as the officers, and marched so — well (doing twenty miles in four hours) that at sunrise the runners reported that Wynter’s Hili was in sight. On this I ordered a halt, and while the men were break- fasting J went forward with Oliver Fane and Bolsover to reconnoiter. The Cariberoes were encamped about two miles off, at the edge of a wood. Between our bivouac and the wood the ground was undulating and open, and, as I thought, not badly adapted for a battle on a small scale. But as the enemy occupied the higher ground they had the ad- vantage of position, and had they possessed fire-arms- might have rendered it almost impregnable. Even as it was, if they clung to the wood and declined to ** come on,” we should not be able to get at them without heavy loss and risk of disaster, for as yet their numbers were an unknown quantity. ‘l’o overcome this difficulty I had recourse to a stratagem which, though it may seem cruel, was, I think, justifiable in the circumstances, my object being not merely to save the island, but to give the Cari- beroes such a lesson as would keep them away from it for at least a generation. As yet they had not seen us— could not see us until we stirred, for we were behind a clump of trees in a dip of the ground. My plan was to send the native camp-followers on first, in the hope that the Cariberoes, perceiving how few they were, and that they belonged to the race they least feared, might come down the hill to meet them, a proceeding which would. afford us the opportunity we desired. My stratagem, albeit far from being a failure, did not prove the brilliant success which I expected. Some of the men, contrary to my orders, lighted fires, so that be- fore our Carib allies marched out the Cariberoes were al- ready on the qui vive, and, though they came down the hill in force, they advanced cautiously and, rather to my surprise, silently and in good order. They numbered as least five thousand, and it was obvious that they were commanded bya chief who knew something of the art of war. The Caribs did not take much harm, after all—then. After exchanging a few shots with the enemy they bolted comicbooks. m