322 
THE ROUT AT A GUN-SHOT. 
[chap. XI. 
so rashly advanced to compliment ns by their absurd 
performances. 
We marched till 7 p.m. over flat, uninteresting 
country, and then halted at a miserable village which 
the people had deserted, as they expected our arrival. 
The following morning I found much difficulty in 
getting our escort together, as they had been foraging 
throughout the neighbourhood ; these “ devil’s own ” 
were a portion of Kamrasi’s troops, who considered 
themselves entitled to plunder ad libitum throughout 
the march; however, after some delay, they collected, 
and their tall chief approached me, and begged that a 
gun might be fired as a curiosity. The escort had 
crowded around us, and as the boy Saat was close to 
me, I ordered him to fire his gun. This was Saat’s 
greatest delight, and bang went one barrel unexpectedly 
close to the tall chief’s ear. The effect was charming. 
The tall chief, thinking himself injured, clasped his 
head with both hands, and bolted through the crowd, 
which, struck with a sudden panic, rushed away in all 
directions, the “ devil’s own ” tumbling over each other, 
and utterly scattered by the second barrel which Saat 
exultingly fired in derision as Kamrasi’s warlike regi¬ 
ment dissolved before a sound. I felt quite sure, that 
in the event of a fight, one scream from the “ baby,” 
with its charge of forty small bullets, would win the 
battle, if well delivered into a crowd of Kamrasi’s 
troops. 
That afternoon, after a march through a most beau¬ 
tiful forest of large mimosas in full blossom, we arrived 
at the morass that had necessitated this great detour 
from our direct course to the lake. It was nearly 
three-quarters of a mile broad, and so deep, that in 
many places the oxen were obliged to swim; both 
Mrs. Baker and I were carried across on our angareps 
by twelve men with the greatest difficulty; the guide, 
who waded before us to show the way, suddenly dis¬ 
appeared in a deep hole, and his bundle that he had 
carried on his head, being of light substance, was seen 
