Mistaking their route, they came to a precipice from which there was no
retreat. The screaming and yelling savages closed round them. Fighting
was useless; the natives, under cover of the numerous detached rocks,
offered no mark for an aim; while the crowd of armed savages thrust them
forward with wild yells to the very verge of the great precipice about
five hundred feet below. Down they fell! hurled to utter destruction by
the mass of Latookas pressing onward! A few fought to the last; but one
and all were at length forced, by sheer pressure, over the edge of the
cliff, and met a just reward for their atrocities.
My men looked utterly cast down, and a feeling of horror pervaded the
entire party. No quarter had been given by the Latookas; and upwards of
200 natives who had joined the slave-hunters in the attack, had also
perished with their allies. Mahommed Her had not him self accompanied
his people, both he and Bellaal, my late ringleader, having remained in
camp; the latter having, fortunately for him, been disabled, and placed
hors de combat by the example I had made during the mutiny.
My men were almost green with awe, when I asked them solemnly, "Where
were the men who had deserted from me?" Without answering a word they
brought two of my guns and laid them at my feet.
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