We Had A Most Refreshing
Bathe In The River, But Kept Our Rifles Close At Hand, As The Enemy
Could Have Easily Speared Us From The Reeds On The Opposite Bank.
After supper we interviewed the prisoners, and we now learned the
real sequel to our last visit and what a narrow escape we had that
night from being all massacred.
It appeared that our fighting during
the daytime astonished them much, as they could not understand how we
could kill at such a distance, rifles being quite new to them. Our
fame soon reached a large village much further on, and they said
to the Dobodura people: "Ye are all cowards; we will show you that
we can destroy these strange people." They started off that night
and surrounding our camp on all sides, crept up for a rush; but,
luckily for us, our sentries saw some of them and fired. The first
shot killed one of them, and others were hit. Then came the blaze of
many rifles. This terrified them and they fled. The horrible noise of
the rifles and the flashes of fire in the darkness astonished them, but
what made them depart for good was seeing one of their men fall at the
first shot. It was a very lucky shot, and it probably saved our lives
that night. When asked why they raided the Notus, the prisoners said
that they were friends until two years ago, when they quarrelled, and
had been constantly fighting since.
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