My wife, who was always ready in any emergency, rushed out of her hut
with my rifle and belt.
The soldiers had already commenced firing by the time that I was armed
and had reached the front, by the edge of the light fence of wattles.
I now observed the enemy about ninety yards distant; many of them were
kneeling on the ground and firing, but immediately after taking a shot,
they retired behind the huts to reload. In this manner they were keeping
up a hot fire.
I perceived a man in white upper garments, but with black trousers: this
fellow knelt and fired. I immediately took a shot at him with the
"Dutchman."
We should have lost many men if this hiding behind huts and popping from
cover had been allowed to continue. I therefore called my "Forty
Thieves" together, and ordered the bugler to sound the charge with the
bayonet.
Pushing through the narrow wicket gateway, I formed some thirty or forty
men in line and led them at full speed with fixed bayonets against the
enemy.
Although the slave-hunters had primed themselves well with araki and
merissa before they had screwed up courage to attack the troops, they
were not quite up to standing before a bayonet charge.
