Chaf. xlv. narrow escape. 
239 
which had been hid in a clay jar. This was evi- 
dently the shirt of the messenger himself ; and the 
blood with which it had been stained had been washed 
out without taking the letters out of the pocket. 
Devoid as the expedition was of feats of valour and 
interest, the greatest importance was attached to 
this little incident. 
When we left this place our friends iust „ , 
. Sunday, 
barely escaped punishment for their bar- January iith. 
barous proceeding of burning the villages in which 
we had encamped as soon as we left them ; for the 
conflagration spread before we had gained the open 
country, and a most horrible crushing took place 
among the burning huts. Had there been any wind, 
great part of the army might have been severely 
scorched. 
The country which we passed to-day was inter- 
sected by numerous watercourses ; and we had to 
cross and recross them several times. Here we 
passed a place where the poor natives, in the con- 
sciousness of their weakness, seemed to have been 
aroused to new and unwonted energy for building a 
large fortification, but had been obliged to leave 
it half finished. Our march was extremely short, 
and scarcely extended to three miles, when we 
encamped in a village which seemed to have been 
ransacked at a former period. It lay straggling 
over a wide extent of ground, in separate groups of 
cottages, which were surrounded by stubble-fields 
shaded by karage-trees of a richness and exuberance 
