Had either the Mandara or the sheikh’s troops now moved up boldly, notwithstanding the defence these people made, and the reinforcements which showed themselves to the south-west, they must have carried the town with the heights overlooking it, along which the Arabs were driving the Felatahs by the terror their miserable guns excited ; but, instead/of this, they still kept on the other side of the wadey, out of reach of the arrows. The Felatahs seeing their backwardness, now made an attack in their tu rn : the arrows fell so thick that there was no standing against them, and the Arabs gave way. The Felatah horse now came on ; and had not the little band round Barca Gana, and Boo- Khaloom, with a few of his mounted Arabs, given them a very spirited check, not one of us would probably have lived to see the following day: as it. was, Barca Gana had three horses hit under him, two of which died almost immediately, the arrows being poisoned, and poor BooGCbaloom’s horse and himself received their death-wounds by arrows of the same description. My horse was badly wounded in the neck, just above the shoulder, and in the near hind leg: an arrow had struck me in the face, as it passed, merely drawing the blood, and I had two sticking in my bornouse. The Arabs had suffered terribly; most of them had two or three wounds, and one dropped near me with five sticking in his head alone; two of Boo-Khaloom’s slaves were killed also, near his person. No sooner did the Mandara and Bornou troops see the defeat of the Arabs, than they, one and all, took to flight in the most dastardly manner, without having once been exposed to the arrows of the enemy, and in the utmost confusion. The sultan of Mandara led the way, who was prepared to take advantage of whatever plunder the success of the Arabs might throw in his way, but no less determined to leave the field the moment the fortune of the day appeared to be' against them.
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