JOURNEY FROM ASHAKA TO MAIFONI 227 



(or round reed huts) that crowded the town by the southern 

 gate. These were so tough that they resisted all attempts 

 to fire them, and heavy losses resulted as a way was fought 

 through them. Then for some reason unexplained the 

 " retire " sounded, which the men obeyed reluctantly, for 

 they had now warmed to their work. In the afternoon 

 reinforcements came up and the assault was again delivered ; 

 this time to meet with a weakened resistance, and it was not 

 long before the ground was regained. But fighting continued 

 with stubborn opposition till sunset, when the enemy, refusing 

 to surrender, made their final stand at the Masalachi (or 

 House of Prayer), where Captain Henvey, who had worked 

 all round the town with signal results, brought up his milli- 

 metre and fired case shot. The body of Attahiru was found 

 among the dead by the gate. It is said that he was praying 

 in the mosque with his mallams when the attack was made, 

 and hearing that the " white man " had carried the gate, 

 went down there with his personal followers to attempt to 

 save defeat. Throughout the day hundreds of the enemy 

 made their escape by the gates on the farther side of the 

 town, and considerable execution was done by Major Barlow's 

 mounted infantry, who pursued the fugitives as far as the 

 River Gongola. Many more that had escaped in the assault, 

 got away under cover of the darkness. At nightfall the 

 troops withdrew and camped outside the walls. All round 

 the gate where the assault was made, the arrows bristled the 

 ground as thick as quills upon a porcupine. Half a mile 

 to the south-west, on the road to Tunga, there stands a solitary 

 fig-tree, where I was told the body of Major Marsh lies, but 

 I could find no mark to show the place of his burial. 



