I have already described the tactics of Bari night attacks. There can be
no doubt that their scouts must have crept close to the camp, and must
have returned to the main body without having been observed by the
sentries. The report that all were asleep, or off their guard, had been
delivered.
It is supposed that some thousands of the enemy moved cautiously
forward, concealed by the darkness, upon ground that otherwise could not
have admitted a stealthy approach.
Fortunately for the expedition, one or two of the cattle sentries were
awake, otherwise the entire force must have been massacred.
The Baris crept forward without being observed, until they arrived near
the silent and sleepy camp. Then with sudden shrieks and yells they
rushed forward in a mass upon the unsuspecting troops!
A slight impediment may check an assault during the darkness of night.
The only protection to the position was a simple line of thorn branches
laid in a row about twenty paces in the front, running parallel with the
river. The naked legs of the first line of the enemy must have become
entangled in this unseen obstruction for a few seconds, which caused
sufficient confusion to destroy the momentum of the first rush forward.
The sentries by the ravine immediately fired, and the sixty men who
formed the cattle guard quickly responded, and poured a fire into the
enemy's flank.
The delay caused by the thorns was only momentary, but it had been
sufficient to allow the troops to awaken and to clutch their muskets.
Here was a glorious opportunity for the gun, if loaded with canister and
ready at point-blank range!
The enemy were already at the muzzle. The Egyptian artillerymen forsook
their piece and fled ignominiously to the vessels for protection. Only
one fine fellow had stood by the gun, and he pulled the lanyard when the
crowd of natives were almost upon him. Where were the unfailing English
tubes? An Egyptian tube had been placed in the vent in spite of all my
orders. It MISSED FIRE!
The gun that should have swept a clear road through the enemy was
silent, and the gallant soldier who alone had stood faithful at his post
was immediately speared through the body, and fell dead. The gun was in
the hands of the Baris.
The troops, seized with a panic, fled on board the vessels, where they
were with difficulty rallied by their officers so as to open fire from
the protection of the banks of the river.
The Baris were prepared with fire to burn the ships; which they not only
succeeded in throwing within the vessels, but they killed an unfortunate
woman with a lance, who was on the fore part of a noggur.
Troops had rushed into the cabins and upon the poop-deck of my
diahbeeah, from which they now opened fire upon the enemy who were at
the same time exposed to a flank fire from the sixty cattle guards.
