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"I Now For The First Time, As I Saw Barca Gana On A Fresh Horse, Lamented
My Own Folly In So Exposing Myself, Badly Prepared As I Was For
Accidents.
If my horse's wounds were from poisoned arrows, I felt that
nothing could save me:
However there was not much time for reflection. We
instantly became a flying mass, and plunged, in great disorder, into the
wood we had but a few hours before moved through with order, and very
different feelings. I had got a little to the westward of Barca Gana, in
the confusion which took place on our passing the ravine which had been
left just on our rear, and where upwards of 100 of the Bornouese were
speared by the Fellatahs, and was following at a round gallop the steps
of one of the Mandara eunuchs, who I observed kept a good look out, his
head being constantly turned over his left shoulder, with, a face
expressive of the greatest dismay - when the cries behind of the Fellatah
horse pursuing, made us both quicken our paces. The spur however had the
effect of incapacitating my beast altogether, as the arrow I found
afterwards had reached the shoulder bone, and in passing over some rough
ground he stumbled and fell. Almost before I was on my legs, the
Fellatahs were upon me; I had however, kept hold of the bridle, and
seizing a pistol from the holsters, I presented it at two of the
ferocious savages, who were pressing me with their spears: they instantly
went off; but another who came on me more boldly, just as I was
endeavouring to mount, received the contents somewhere in his left
shoulder, and again I was enabled to place my foot in the stirrup.
Remounted, I again pushed my retreat; I had not, however, proceeded many
hundred yards, when my horse again came down with such violence as to
throw me against a tree at a considerable distance; and alarmed at the
horses behind him, he quickly got up and escaped, leaving me on foot and
unarmed.
"The eunuch and his four followers were here butchered, after a very
slight resistance, and stripped within a few yards of me: their cries
were dreadful; and even now, the feelings of that moment are fresh in my
memory. My hopes of life were too faint to deserve the name. I was almost
instantly surrounded, and incapable of making the least resistance, as I
was unarmed, was as speedily stript; and whilst attempting first to save
my shirt and then my trowsers, I was thrown on the ground. My pursuers
made several thrusts at me with their spears, that badly wounded my hands
in two places, and slightly my body, just under my ribs, on the right
side. Indeed, I saw nothing before me but the same cruel death I had seen
unmercifully inflicted on the few who had fallen into the power of those
who now had possession of me; and they were only prevented from murdering
me, in the first instance, I am persuaded, by the fear of injuring the
value of my clothes, which appeared to them a rich booty, - but it was
otherwise ordained.
"My shirt was now absolutely torn off my back, and I was left perfectly
naked. When my plunderers began to quarrel for the spoil, the idea of
escape came like lightning across my mind, and without a moment's
hesitation or reflection, I crept under the belly of the horse nearest
me, and started as fast as my legs could carry me for the thickest part
of the wood. Two of the Fellatahs followed, and I ran on to the eastward,
knowing that our stragglers would be in that direction, but still almost
as much afraid of friends as foes. My pursuers gained on me, for the
prickly underwood not only obstructed my passage, but tore my flesh
miserably; and the delight with which I saw a mountain stream gliding
along at the bottom of a deep ravine cannot be imagined. My strength had
almost left me, and I seized the young branches issuing from the stump of
a large tree which overhung the ravine, for the purpose of letting myself
down into the water, as the sides were precipitous; when under my hand,
as the branch yielded to the weight of my body, a large _liffa_, the
worst kind of serpent this country produces, rose from its coil as if in
the very act of striking. I was horror-struck, and deprived for a moment
of all recollection - the branch slipped from my hand, and I tumbled
headlong into the water beneath; this shock, however, revived me, and
with three strokes of my arms I reached the opposite bank, which with
difficulty I crawled up, and then, for the first time, felt myself safe
from my pursuers.
"I now saw horsemen through the trees still farther to the east, and
determined on reaching them if possible, whether friends or enemies; and
the feelings of gratitude and joy with which I recognized Barca Gana and
Boo Khaloom, with about six Arabs, although they also were pressed
closely by a party of the Fellatahs, was beyond description. The guns and
pistols of the Arab shiekhs kept the Fellatahs in check, and assisted in
some measure the retreat of the footmen, I hailed them with all my might,
but the noise and confusion which prevailed from the cries of those who
were falling under the Fellatah spears, the cheers of the Arabs rallying,
and their enemies pursuing, would have drowned all attempts to make
myself heard, had not Maramy, the shiekh's negro, seen and known me at a
distance. To this man I was indebted for my second escape; riding up to
me, he assisted me to mount behind him, while the arrows whistled over
our heads; and we then galloped off to the rear as fast as his wounded
horse could carry us. After we had gone a mile or two, and the pursuit
had something cooled, in consequence of all the baggage having been
abandoned to the enemy.
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