A NEW TROOP OF BANDITTI. 
235 
sorry that any such aid was necessary ; bat it ap- 
peared from his report that there were more people 
collecting to attack the Christians, and get a share 
of their spoils. In the evening we encamped in an 
open space clear of the trees, where we could see all 
around us, and use our arms if necessary. Scarcely 
were we established when a troop of iifty men came 
near in a threatening manner, but did not attack 
us. After dark, they increased to about a hundred. 
They consisted of the sheikhs of the districts, with 
their followers and lawless men scraped together 
from various quarters. Meanwhile our escort, vfho 
were anxious for their own safety as well as ours, 
had sent on to the City of Marabouts, Tintaghoda, 
and had prevailed on several of these holy men to 
protect them and us. The night was spent in con- 
ference instead of in repose. The hostile Sheikhs 
told our marabouts that they did not come to harm 
us, but to oblige us to become Muslims, for no in- 
fidel had ever, or ever should, pass through their 
country. This proposition was at once, as a matter 
of business and profession, approved of by our pro- 
tecting marabouts. What priest ever shrunk from 
the prospect of a conversion ? 
Matters having come to this point, our escort, 
camel-drivers and servants, could not but com- 
municate to us the demand made — namely, that 
we should change our religion or return by the way 
we had come. This time, likewise, even our own 
servants prayed that we would accept the proposi- 
