130 THE MURDER. 



In the middle of the night, AlleeChous, the Arab sen- 

 tinel, being probably asleep, two natives cantionsly 

 approached along the level plain, descended the bank, 

 and striking together, each having selected his victim, 

 the soft parts of the necks were divided almost to the 

 vertebre,and the two soldiers died without a struggle. 

 The Portuguese cook, who lay next to them, was dis- 

 turbed, and seeing the assassins, he gave a cry of 

 alarm, and the heavy knife of one of them, whilst 

 retreating, was plunged into his abdomen. He died 

 on the following day. Some attempt was made to 

 pursue the murderers, but the darkness and the 

 number of huge boulders around the base of the 

 hills amongst which they retreated, favoured their 

 escape. As I felt quite sure of the intentions of 

 Garahmee and Moosa to serve me in the same 

 way, if they could get the opportunity, I felt no 

 little anxiety on turning in to-night, when on the 

 level tops of the sides of my box house, I saw 

 these two rascals busily arranging their mats, as 

 if solicitous to convince me they did not wish 

 any recurrence of the tragedy, which had formed 

 the only topic of conversation to-day; Ohmed 

 Mahomed, however, soon dislodged them, on the 

 plea, that they ran the risk of upsetting the boxes 

 upon me, and as these wooden walls were really 

 rather shaky, they could not object to his re- 

 quest, that they would make their place of rest 

 somewhere else. To prevent, still farther, any 

 attempt during the night, that should not awaken 



