city wall up the hill crowned
by the great white Kasbah, or fortress, which constituted Samory's
palace, and were now actually within sight of it. Fiercely exerting every
muscle we fought to attain our goal, but so desperate was the defence,
that time after time our forward movement was prevented, and we were
compelled to fall back bleeding and frustrated. In these valiant attempts
to reach the walls of the Kasbah there fell, at a low estimate, fully
five hundred of that portion of the force to which I had attached myself.
With reinforcements we might have flung back the defenders, yet separated
as we had been into small bodies during the earlier manoeuvres, fighting
was now taking place in every part of the city, no two bodies being able
to unite their forces.

To thus cut us off one from another had, no doubt, been the tactics of
the defenders, for we afterwards learnt that in many instances the
smaller of our gallant little bands had been slaughtered literally to a
man.

At last, however, my worst fears began to be realized, for the defenders,
receiving reinforcements, swooped suddenly down upon us, and with their
swords and those sharp double-edged knives they carried in their belts,
wrought frightful havoc among us everywhere, while upon us another body
poured a terrible fire from their long-barrelled rifles.

As result of this, although we made a spirited stand, once again we were
compelled to fall back in confusion, leaving many dead and dying upon the
stones. Suddenly I heard Kona's well-known voice behind me uttering the
fierce war yell of the Dagombas, and next instant we found to our
satisfaction that a great body of his dark oily-faced warriors had come
to our relief. The reckless and savage manner in which they fought a few
moments later was astounding, and it was certainly due to their courage
and strength that the Arabs were first forced back and then cut to pieces
and utterly routed.

This, however, did not carry us much further towards the Kasbah, for when
within an ace of gaining its walls, another body of Arabs swept across
the great square with its clump of date-palms, and with cries of rage
attacked us vigorously with rifle and sword. The combat again became
terrible, and in it I received from a big, raw-boned Arab a severe
sword-cut over the left wrist that caused me excruciating pain. Still I
fought on, although half fearing that our expedition was ill-fated. We
had believed Samory's capital p