THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 237 



taken prisoners. But this did not deter them, for after resting 

 one night, they again assailed the camp with great fury and suc- 

 ceeded in shooting two soldiers and releasing the cattle, which 

 immediately stampeded and scattered over the country 



Baker now determined upon an expedition against the rebels, 

 whose largest village was about twelve miles from Gondokoro. 

 Taking seventy men and one piece of artillery, he made a forced 

 march at night to surprise them in the morning, but as he got in 

 sight of the village, a watchman gave the usual shrill whistle of 

 alarm, and immediately the big drum sounded and the village 

 was ready for the attack. A brisk battle followed, with bows 

 and arrows on one side and Snider rifles on the other. At first 

 Baker's attention was directed toward forcing the stockade, but 

 the beating of drums now heard on every side told him that the 

 whole country was aroused and that his force would soon be sur- 

 rounded. Desperate efforts were made to force an entrance 

 through the stockade, but the briars and hard wood resisted for 

 a long time ; skirmishers were thrown out around the circle 

 eighty yards from the stockade to keep back the legions that 

 were rushing to the rescue, but the soldiers would have been 

 massacred by sheer force of numbers had it not been that the 

 stockade yielded at a fortunate moment, and all of Baker's men 

 rushed in, while the Baris inside with equal alacrity rushed out. 

 Protected as they now were, they could fight the battle their own 

 way, and gained a decided victory. Not only was the victory 

 complete, but Baker recovered the five hundred head of cattle 

 that had been stampeded, these having all been collected within 

 the stockade of the village attacked. 



SOLDIERS EATEN BY CROCODILES. 



SAVAGES were not the only enemies which they had to contend 

 with, for the crocodiles in the neighborhood were so numerous 

 and ferocious that they were a source of great loss and constant 

 danger. As the natives were so much in the habit of swimming 

 to and fro with their cattle, these wily creatures had been always 

 accustomed to claim a toll in the shape of a cow, calf, or nigger. 

 Two < y f Abou Saood's sailors wpr-o carried off on two consecutive 



