Achmet Rafik Was Thus Overpowered And Killed, With The Gain To The Baris
Of His Arms And Ammunition.
I immediately started off with a company of troops, led by a Bari guide,
to the west end of the plain, where my officer had been killed.
I had
not yet visited this spot, but the guilty natives were wide awake, and
they had concealed the arms, which I had hoped to recover. The forest
was tolerably open, and was full of small villages concealed by the
trees. I spread out my men and regularly drove the covert. Suddenly we
came upon a herd of cattle and a number of natives who had imagined
themselves secure in the depths of the forest.
I immediately dashed into them on horseback, accompanied by Lieutenant
Baker, Colonel Abd-el-Kader, and Monsoor, followed by the troops. The
cattle, seeing the red shirts of the "Forty Thieves," had gone off in a
regular stampede through the forest; this precipitate flight had been
quickened by the report of the rifles. It was difficult work to manage
the herd with only four horses. No one who has not hunted African, and
especially Bari cattle, can have an idea of the activity of these
animals. They go along at a tremendous pace, and never appear to get
blown: thus we were spurring hard through the forest in order to
overtake the herd, when to my great satisfaction we arrived at the broad
bed (nearly dry) of the Belinian river.
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