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!
