The path lay in a gorge between the
low rocky hills in advance.
My wife dismounted from her ox, and walked
at the head of our party with me, Saat following behind with the gun
that he usually carried, while the men drove several riding-oxen in the
centre. Hardly had we entered the pass, when - whizz went an arrow over
our heads. This was the signal for a repeated discharge. The natives ran
among the rocks with the agility of monkeys, and showed a considerable
amount of daring in standing within about eighty yards upon the ridge,
and taking steady shots at us with their poisoned arrows. The flanking
parties now opened fire, and what with the bad shooting of both the
escort and the native archers, no one was wounded on either side for the
first ten minutes. The rattle of musketry, and the wild appearance of
the naked vermilion-coloured savages, as they leapt along the craggy
ridge, twanging their bows at us with evil but ineffectual intent, was a
charming picture of African life and manners. Fortunately the branches
of numerous trees and intervening clumps of bamboo frustrated the good
intentions of the arrows, as they glanced from their aim; and although
some fell among our party, we were as yet unscathed. One of the enemy,
who was most probably a chief, distinguished himself in particular, by
advancing to within about fifty yards, and standing on a rock, he
deliberately shot five or six arrows, all of which missed their mark;
the men dodged them as they arrived in their uncertain flight:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 601 of 662
Words from 161928 to 162200
of 178435
