212 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. XLIV. 
to find any object on which to vent its anger ; and 
such a one soon presented itself, for when we 
again reached that channel-like watercourse which I 
have mentioned above, and were watering our 
horses, four natives were seen, who, evidently con- 
fiding in their courage and their skill in swimming, 
had here taken refuge in the deepest part of the 
water, in order to give information to their country- 
men of the retreat of the enemy. As soon as our 
friends caught sight of this little troop of heroes, they 
determined to sacrifice them to their vengeance. 
With this view, the whole of the cavalry arranged 
themselves in close lines on each side of the water. 
But the task was not so easy as it appeared at 
first; and all the firing of the bad marksmen was 
in vain, the Musgu diving with remarkable agility. 
When the vizier saw that in this way these heroes 
could not be overpowered, he ordered some Kanembu 
to enter the water ; and a very singular kind of com- 
bat arose, the like of which I had never seen before, 
and which required an immense deal of energy, for. 
while these people bad to sustain themselves above 
the water with the help of their feet, they had at 
the same time to jump up, throw the spear, and 
parry the thrusts of their adversaries. The poor 
Miisgu people, on their side, were not only fighting 
for their lives, but even, as it were, for their na- 
tional honour. They were of large and muscular 
frame, single-handed far superior to the Kanembu; 
but at length, after a protracted struggle, the su- 
