158 PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE. [chap. y. 
Saat was full of fight, and immediately strapped on 
his belt and cartouche-box, and took his stand among 
the men. 
I ordered the men, in the event of an attack, to 
immediately set fire to all the huts around the quad¬ 
rangle ; in which case the sudden rush of a large body 
of men would be impossible, and the huts being of 
straw, the town would be quickly in a blaze. 
Everything was in order to resist an attack in five 
minutes from the sounding of the nogara. 
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 
midnight, the chief Commoro came fearlessly to the 
patrol, and was admitted to the quadrangle. He 
seemed greatly struck with the preparations for 
