It appeared that Mahommed Her had ordered his party of 110 armed men, in
addition to 300 natives, to make a razzia upon a certain village among
the mountains for slaves and cattle. They had succeeded in burning a
village, and in capturing a great number of slaves. Having descended the
pass, a native gave them the route that would lead to the capture of a
large herd of cattle that they had not yet discovered. They once more
ascended the mountain by a different path, and arriving at the kraal,
they commenced driving off the vast herd of cattle. The Latookas, who
had not fought while their wives and children were being carried into
slavery, now fronted bravely against the muskets to defend their herds,
and charging the Turks, they drove them down the pass.
It was in vain that they fought; every bullet aimed at a Latooka struck
a rock, behind which the enemy was hidden. Rocks, stones, and lances
were hurled at them from all sides and from above; they were forced to
retreat.
The retreat ended in a panic and precipitate flight. Hemmed in on all
sides, amidst a shower of lances and stones thrown from the mountain
above, the Turks fled pele-mele down the rocky and precipitous ravines.
Mistaking their route, they came to a precipice from which there was no
retreat. The screaming and yelling savages closed round them. Fighting
was useless; the natives, under cover of the numerous detached rocks,
offered no mark for an aim; while the crowd of armed savages thrust them
forward with wild yells to the very verge of the great precipice about
five hundred feet below. Down they fell! hurled to utter destruction by
the mass of Latookas pressing onward! A few fought to the last; but one
and all were at length forced, by sheer pressure, over the edge of the
cliff, and met a just reward for their atrocities.
My men looked utterly cast down, and a feeling of horror pervaded the
entire party. No quarter had been given by the Latookas; and upwards of
200 natives who had joined the slave-hunters in the attack, had also
perished with their allies. Mahommed Her had not him self accompanied
his people, both he and Bellaal, my late ringleader, having remained in
camp; the latter having, fortunately for him, been disabled, and placed
hors de combat by the example I had made during the mutiny.
My men were almost green with awe, when I asked them solemnly, "Where
were the men who had deserted from me?" Without answering a word they
brought two of my guns and laid them at my feet. They were covered with
clotted blood mixed with sand, which had hardened like cement over the
locks and various portions of the barrels.
