22 FELATAH DEPREDATIONS. 



houses at Kacundah lately destroyed by the 

 Felatahs. The reach we were in lay north- 

 north-west. At 10^ A. M. we experienced a heavy 

 tornado, which was followed by a thick fog, 

 when we anchored abreast of a town named 

 Rigadoh. Kacundah is surrounded by a morass, 

 bearing from our anchorage south-south-west ; 

 the town appeared to be large and capacious ; 

 the natives were busily employed in rebuilding 

 their ruined habitations. We passed an im- 

 mense number of huts erected on a sandbank a 

 little south of the town, whither the natives fled ■ 

 on the approach of the Felatahs. This people 

 seldom if ever cross the river to surprise the 

 natives on the opposite bank, as their cavalry 

 could not be immediately embarked, having no 

 canoes. On the approach of the Felatah army 

 the only chance of escape that remains for the 

 natives is to retreat to the sandbanks, where the 

 river is only a few hundred yards wide ; and in 

 their temporarily-erected houses of mats, they 

 await the retreat of their enemies, who almost 

 invariably leave their town burning behind them. 

 I had been very much indisposed during the 

 last few days, and in the nights neither Mr. 

 Lander nor myself had been able to obtain a 



