The Boy Saat Was
Full Of Fight, And Immediately Strapped On His Belt And Cartouche-Box,
And Took His Stand Among The Men.
I ordered the men, in the event of an attack, to immediately set fire to
all the huts around the quadrangle; in which case the sudden rush of a
large body of men would be impossible, and the huts being of straw, the
town would be quickly in a blaze.
Everything was in order to resist an attack in five minutes from the
sounding of the nogara.
The patrols shortly reported that large bodies of men were collecting
outside the town. The great nogara again beat, and was answered at
intervals as before from the neighbouring villages; but the Turks' drum
kept up an uninterrupted roll as a challenge whenever the nogara
sounded. Instead of the intense stillness that had formerly been almost
painful, a distinct hum of distant voices betokened the gathering of
large bodies of men. However, we were well fortified; and the Latookas
knew it. We occupied the very stronghold that they had themselves
constructed for the defence of their town; and the square being
surrounded with strong iron-wood palisades with only a narrow entrance,
would be impregnable when held, as now, by fifty men well armed with
guns against a mob whose best weapons were only lances. I sent men up
the watchmen's stations; these were about twenty-five feet high; and the
night being clear, they could distinctly report the movements of a dark
mass of natives that were ever increasing on the outside of the town at
about two hundred yards' distance.
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