way, leaving us to kill or be killed, as the fortunes of war
might determine; and we at length had to retreat from our sable
enemies, and go and find our white friends. We got the mob of horses
up, but the yelling of these fiends in human form, the clouds of smoke
from the burning grass and bushes, and the many disagreeable odours
incident to a large native village, and the yapping and howling of a
lot of starving dogs, all combined to make us and our horses
exceedingly restless. They seemed somewhat overawed by the number of
the horses, and though they crowded round from all directions, for
there were more than 200 of them, the women and children being sent
away over the hills at our first approach, they did not then throw any
more spears. I selected as open a piece of ground as I could get for
the camp, which, however, was very small, back from the water, and
nearly under the foot of a hill. When they saw us dismount, for I
believe they had previously believed ourselves and our horses to form
one animal, and begin to unload the horses, they proceeded properly to
work themselves up for a regular onslaught. So long as the horses
remained close, they seemed disinclined to attack, but when they were
hobbled and went away, the enemy made a grand sortie, rushing down the
hill at the back of the camp where they had congregated, towards us in
a body with spears fitted in pose and yelling their war cries.

Our lives were in imminent danger; we had out all the firearms we
could muster; these amounted to two rifles, two shot guns, and five
revolvers. I watched with great keenness the motion of their arms that
gives the propulsion to their spears, and the instant I observed that,
I ordered a discharge of the two rifles and one gun, as it was no use
waiting to be speared first. I delayed almost a second too long, for
at the instant I gave the word several spears had left the enemy's
hands, and it was with great good fortune we avoided them. Our shots,
as I had ordered, cut up the ground at their feet, and sent the sand
and gravel into their eyes and faces; this and the noise of the
discharge made the great body of them pause. Availing ourselves of
this interval, we ran to attack them, firing our revolvers in quick
succession as we ran. This, with the noise and the to them
extraordinary phenomenon of a projectile approaching them which they
could not see, drove them up into the hills from which they had
approached us, and they were