190 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
in this manner the call to arms is circulated over 
the country. 
The chief of each town or village with as lit- 
tle delay as possible assembles his followers (or 
division, if it may be so called), and proceeds 
to head-quarters, where those chiefs consult 
with the king on the plan of attack or defence. 
No regular division of the army takes place, nor 
is there any provision made for its support or 
equipment ; each man provides for himself such 
means of support, arms, and ammunition, as 
he can afford, and so badly are they furnished 
with the two latter, that when 1 saw the army 
assembled, a great many indeed had no other 
weapons than a knife and a bludgeon of hard 
wood. On some occasions, a favoured few receive 
two or three charges of powder and ball with a 
couple of flints : and in some very solitary in- 
stances indeed, his majesty confers marks of his 
royal favour on one, by a present of a horse, and 
on another a gun. Provisions they find as they 
can, and woe to the stores and cattle of that town 
where they are assembled for any time. 
Whenever the object of the campaign is not 
decided on within a few days, the least effective 
persons disappear, and may be said to reduce the 
whole force one-third, and even then many 
might be found, who remain with no other ob- 
