The soldiers on this occasion acted with their usual firmness, and without creating a disturbance, acquainted the officer of the guard with the circumstance, who immediately took every precaution to prevent an attack, and at the same time gave orders that no molestation, while they continued peaceable, should be offered them.

From the darkness of the night, and the distance they kept at, it was not easy to ascertain their number, but from the sound of the voices and other circumstances, it was calculated at near thirty.

To their intentions in honouring us with this visit (the only one we have had from them in the last five months) we are strangers, though most probably it was either with a view to pilfer, or to ascertain in what security we slept, and the precautions we used in the night.

When the bells of the ships in the harbour struck the hour of the night, and the centinels called out on their posts "All's well," they observed a dead silence, and continued it for some minutes, though talking with the greatest earnestness and vociferation but the moment before.

After having remained a considerable time they departed without interchanging a syllable with our people..