124 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
rallying their archers discharged a shower of poisoned 
arrows, to which many an Arab fell a victim, and before 
which the forces of Bornou and Mandara gave way. 
Barca, the Bornou general, had three horses killed 
under him. Boo-Khaloum and his steed were both 
wounded, and Denham was in a similar plight, with the 
skin of his face grazed by one arrow and two others 
lodged in his burnoos. 
The retreat soon became a rout. Denham’s horse 
fell under him, and the major had hardly regained his 
feet when he was surrounded by Fellatahs. Two tied on 
the presentation of the Englishman’s pistols, a third 
received the charge in his shoulder. 
Denham thought he was safe, when his horse fell a 
second time, flinging his master violently against a tree. 
This time when the major rose he found himself with 
neither horse nor weapons ; and the next moment lie 
was surrounded by enemies, who stripped him and 
wounded him in both hands and the right side, leaving 
him half dead at last to fight over his clothes, which 
seemed to them of great value. 
Availing himself of this lucky quarrel, Denham 
slipped under a horse standing by, and disappeared in 
the thicket. Naked, bleeding, wild with pain, he 
reached the edge of a ravine with a mountain-stream 
flowing through it. His strength was all but gone, and 
he was clutching at the bough of a tree overhanging the 
water with a view to dropping himself into it as the 
banks were very steep, and the branches were actually 
bending beneath his weight, when from beneath his 
hand a gigantic liffa, the most venomous kind of serpent in 
the country, rose from its coil in the very act of striking. 
Horrorstruck, Denham let slip the branch, and tumbled 
headlong into the water, but fortunately the shock 
revived him, he struck out almost unconsciously, swam 
to the opposite bank, and climbing it, found himself safe 
from his pursuers. 
Fortunately the fugitive soon saw a group of horse¬ 
men amongst the trees, and in spite of the noise of the 
pursuit, he managed to shout loud enough to make them 
