We galloped up, followed closely by the
"Forty Thieves," who ran like hounds. I immediately surrounded the
stockade, from which the natives had commenced to shoot their arrows.
The Egyptian troops were close up, and in the uncertain light it was
impossible to see the arrows in their flight; thus one soldier was
immediately wounded; another received a shot through his trousers. An
arrow stuck in Mr. Higginbotham's saddle, and they began to fly about
very viciously. The "Forty Thieves" now opened fire, while the Egyptians
were drawn up in a line about fifty yards from the stockade. It was
rather awkward, as the defence was a circle: thus as the troops fired
into a common centre, the bullets that passed through the intervening
spaces between the uprights of hard wood came pinging about our ears.
The sky had become grey, and there was sufficient light to discover the
doorway of the stockade. I ordered the bugles to sound "cease firing,"
and prepared to force the entrance. This was a narrow archway about four
feet six inches high, constructed of large pieces of hard wood that it
was impossible to destroy. The doorway was stopped by transverse bars of
abdnoos, or Bari ebony, and protected by a mass of hooked thorn that had
been dragged into the passage and jammed beneath the cross-bars.
I ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Abd-el-Kader to force the gateway. This he
immediately commenced, assisted by Lieutenant Baker and Mr.
Higginbotham, together with a party of the "Forty Thieves," while others
of the same corps closed up to the stockade on either side of the
entrance, and kept up a heavy fire to protect the attack.
In the mean time the immense drum within the stockade was thundering out
the summons to collect the whole of the neighbourhood for war. This
signal was answered by the heavy booming sound of innumerable drums
throughout the district far and near; and as it had now become light, I
could distinguish the natives collecting from all parts and evidently
surrounding our position. I therefore posted men as skirmishers around
the circle about eighty yards distant from the stockade, facing
outwards, while the small party forced the gateway.
The fire of the snider rifles and the steady shooting of the "Forty
Thieves" quickly reduced the number of arrows, and the natives, finding
that it was getting too hot, suddenly made a dash by a secret entrance
and rushed through the troops, now of necessity widely scattered, and
they gained the forest.
At the same time the gateway was forced, and we found a prize within of
upwards of six hundred cows. The stockade, or zareeba, was immensely
strong, formed of massive logs of ironwood deeply imbedded in the earth,
and arranged so closely together that not one bullet out of ten would
have found its way through the crevices if fired from a distance.
