men should be dampened by the onrush of hordes of
shouting savages. I made four divisions of my force:
one consisted of Lieutenant von Hohnel and myself,
the sick, and six able-bodied men — this party remained
on the knoll; the other three parties I sent to the
neighbouring villages with instructions to bring such
food as they could find, sufficient for the day’s needs.
They cheerfully set out upon their errand, and in a few
moments had driven a few head of cattle, some goats,
and a few sheep to our knoll, and brought with them
a few loads of beans and millet. They had scarcely
reached the knoll, ere with loud shouts a body of
warriors, at least 200 in number, sprang from the
plantations where they had been in hiding, and dashed
toward the knoll by a road. Advancing in column,
they presented a front of but five or six men. I placed
six men across this road to repel their attack, and
when the attacking force had reached a point about 100
paces distant they received the first volley. The aim of
this volley was bad, and had no deterring effect upon
the advance of the savages. The command, “ Aim
lower! ” was given, and when the second volley rang
out, the advancing column was seen to waver. A t
the third and fourth volleys the natives in the front
of the columnjscattered and broke; but those in the
rear came pluckily on.
This was the opening of the ball. Soon we were
engaged upon all sides, and for two hours our attention
was directed to stemming the onrush of hundreds
of natives. Upon seeing them weaken, we would
charge the retreating column with a small force, and
endeavour by excessive punishment to prevent their