THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. V 



men should be dampened by the onrush of hordes of 

 shouting savages. I made four divisions of my force : 

 one consisted of Lieutenant von Hohnel and myself, 

 the sick, and six able-bodied men — this party remained 

 on the knoll; the other three parties I sent to the 

 neighbouring villages with instructions to bring such 

 food as they could find, sufficient for the day's needs. 

 They cheerfully set out upon their errand, and in a few 

 moments had driven a few head of cattle, some goats, 

 and a few sheep to our knoll, and brought with them 

 a few loads of beans and millet. They had scarcely 

 reached the knoll, ere with loud shouts a ' body of 

 warriors, at least 200 in number, sprang from the 

 plantations where they had been in hiding, and dashed 

 toward the knoll by a road. Advancing in column, 

 they presented a front of but five or six men. I placed 

 six men across this road to repel their attack, and 

 when the attacking force had reached a point about 100 

 paces distant they received the first volley. The aim of 

 this volley was bad, and had no deterring effect upon 

 the advance of the savages. The command, "Aim 

 lower ! " was given, and when the second volley rang 

 out, the advancing column was seen to waver. At 

 the third and fourth volleys the natives in the front 

 of the column scattered and broke ; but those in the 

 rear came pluckily on. 



This was the opening of the ball. Soon we were 

 engaged upon all sides, and for two hours our atten- 

 tion was directed to stemming the onrush of hundreds 

 of natives. Upon seeing them weaken, we would 

 charge the retreating column with a small force, and 

 endeavour by excessive punishment to prevent their 



