CHAPTER VII. JOURNEY TO TH E EASTERN SHORES OF TH E LAKE TCHAD. March 7 , 1824.—T h e ' courier which I had sent to Kano, with a supply of necessaries for my countrymen, on Mr. Toole’s arrival, returned to Kouka, bringing a confirmation of the report which had before reached me, of the death of Dr. Oudney, at a place called Murmur, near Katagum, on the 12th of January. I had left the sheikh in full march to drive back the Beghar- mis, and he now took up a position near Angala, within five miles of the enemy, who had commenced plundering in their rear, and were moving off all they could gather to the south side of the river: their force, also, it was said, increased daily, and the alarm of the people, both here and at Angornou, lest the enemy should be victorious, was excessive. We were able to muster about seven guns, and three pair of pistols—had plenty of powder and ball; and as our huts were inclosed within a wall, we had determined on defending ourselves to the last. Our determination was no sooner known than I had messages from the wives of all the sheikh’s chiefs who were my friends, saying that they should come to me, if the Begharmis came, as I had guns and plenty of powder; so that I might have had as numerous, and almost as formidable, an army as the sheikh himself, for, from what I had seen of both sexes in Bornou, I believe, in my heart, the women would have fought better than their husbands. The enemy came on several times, and offered battle; but as the sheikh could not get them in the situation he wished for, he refused the combat. On the 28th, however, the struggle commenced. The Begharmis became bold in consequence of the sheikh’s apparent unwillingness to fight, and they at length ventured to attack him in the plain to the south-east of Angala, on the edge of which he had halted. The kafila, which had departed for Soudan, had deprived him of at least thirty of his Arabs ; and the few that remained, with some forty Musgow slaves, who had been trained to the firelock, being his great dependence, he placed them on his flanks. No sooner had theBegharmis cleared the wood,than the sheikh, hoisting his green flag in the centre, and surrounded by his Kanemboo spearmen, moved rapidly on Y the two guns in front, which Hillman had mounted, with the Arabs and musketeers, right and left of them. The Begharmis, also, came on with great coolness in a solid mass, five thousand strong, with two hundred chiefs at their head : they made directly for the centre, where the sheikh had raised the standard of the Prophet, but were repulsed by a discharge from his artillery : they now fell upon Barca Gana’s flank, which was attacked with such determined bravery, that all, except himself and a chosen band, gave way : and here fell my friend and preserver Maramy, who, while in the act of drawing his spear from the body of one of their chiefs, received à thrust in his owm, which went quite through him. The Bornotiese librse, 'who, 'on occasions of this kind, when the road is opened for them, are most active, now took up the pursuit of the routed Begharmis - the Arabs, also, mounted and joined them ; and of the two hundred chiefs of Begharmi one only is said to have escaped alive. Seven sons of the sultan were amongst the killed, and seventeen hundred of less note ; whilst great numbers were put to death by the peoplé of the towns to which they fled, who now, as if by magic, all became the stanch friends of the sheikh. The water of the little stream, Gambalarum, near which the battle was fought, also lent its aid in destroying these invaders and many were drowned in attempting its passage : but above all, k k
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