The firing
continued for about two hours, when it suddenly ceased, and I shortly
saw with a telescope the Turks' red ensign emerge from the forest, and
we heard the roll of their drum, mingled with the lowing of oxen and the
bleating of sheep. Upon nearer approach, I remarked a considerable body
of men, and a large herd of cattle and sheep driven by a number of
Latookas, while a knot of Turks carried something heavy in their arms.
They soon arrived, with about 2,000 head of cattle and sheep; but they
had lost one of their men, killed in the fight, and his body they
carried home for interment. It happened to be about the best man of the
party; really a very civil fellow, and altogether rather a pleasant
robber. At Commoro's instigation, the Turks had attacked the town of
Kayala; but the Latookas had fought so well, that the Turks found it
impossible to capture the town, which was, as usual, protected by
iron-wood palisades, upon which their bullets harmlessly flattened. Not
only the Latooka men had fought well, but their women broke up their
grinding-stones and defended the entrance by pelting their assailants
with the fragments; several of the Turks were wounded by the stones
thrown with such force by these brawny Amazons that some of the
gun-barrels were indented. Many of these brave women had been shot by
the dastardly Turks, and one was in the act of being carried off by the
"pleasant robber," when a native, running to her rescue, drove his spear
through his chest and killed him on the spot.
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