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.
