From many
of the expeditions sent against him only a few weary and wounded survivors
returned, and it became difficult to induce the soldiers to venture into
that den of death.
At length a British officer succeeded in dragging two mountain howitzers
up the cliffs to a position from which Nanny Town, the inaccessible Maroon
stronghold, could be shelled. When the shells, hurled from the distant
cannon, began to burst among them, the Maroons were at first so filled
with terror that some of them threw themselves over the cliffs, but the
bulk of them merely scattered and let the howitzers do their work among
empty walls.
Cudjoe was astonished at the bursting shells, but he was too old a bird to
be frightened. "Dis a new way de buckra man got to fight," he said. "He
fire big ball arter you, and den de big ball fire little ones arter you.
Dat's berry cunnin', but ole Cudjoe know somethin' better un dat."
Leading his men through the woods with the stealthy tread and noiseless
skill of the American Indians, the dwarf and his Maroons suddenly burst
upon the unwary soldiers from the rear while they were busy about their
guns, delivering a telling volley and then rushing upon them with blade
and axe.
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