FRENCH EXPEDITION AGAINST THE POULAS. 171 
Senegal, persuaded that their lives depended upon that of the 
bull, stopped our soldiers ready to fire at him, exclaiming if 
they killed the animal all sorts of misfortunes would over- 
whelm them. The stratagem of the Poulas, for it was they 
who had let loose the bull, was completely successful. The 
Negroes dispersed and fled in disorder towards the vessels. 
To run away from blacks, would have disgraced the twenty- 
five Europeans who accompanied M. Ribet; unsupported they 
sustained the fire of six thousand Poulas, and fell victims to 
their bravery. Such is the event which has rendered the 
Poula nation so famous, and which has exposed the inhabitants 
of the Senegal to the most sanguinary outrages from them : 
while we, on our part, have not hitherto attempted to put an 
end to those outrages, by employing a force sufficiently formi- 
dable to repress them. 
z 2 
