.CHAP. V.] 
WE AWAIT THE ATTACK. 
233 
The patrols shortly reported that large bodies of 
men were collecting outside the town. The great 
nogara again beat, and was answered at intervals as 
before from the neighbouring villages; but the Turks' 
drum kept up an uninterrupted roll as a challenge 
whenever the nogara sounded. Instead of the intense 
stillness that had formerly been almost painful, a 
distinct hum of distant voices betokened the gathering 
of large bodies of men. However, we were well forti¬ 
fied; and the Latookas knew it. We occupied the 
very stronghold that they had themselves constructed 
for the defence of their town; and the square being 
surrounded with strong iron-wood palisades with only 
a narrow entrance, would be impregnable when held, 
as now, by fifty men well armed with guns against 
a mob whose best weapons were only lances. I sent 
men up the watchmen's stations; these were about 
twenty-five feet high ; and the night being clear, they 
could distinctly report the movements of a dark mass 
of natives that were ever increasing on the outside 
of the town at about two hundred yards' distance., 
The rattle of the Turks' drum repeatedly sounded in 
reply to the nogara, and the intended attack seemed- 
destined to relapse into a noisy but empty battle of 
the drums. 
A few hours passed in uncertainty, when, at about 
