A FIERCE FIGHT.
Our position was now critical. When we came to look at our stores and
take stock of our resources, we found we had food for some days, and
water, owing to Hatibu’s foresight in choosing the position of our camp.
But though we only numbered, including Hatibu, myself, and the
new-comers, thirty-three men, of whom only seventeen had muskets, we
could not muster more than four rounds for each gun. Many of us were
wounded, and though the wounded were all able to get about in camp,
still in a hand-to-hand fight, which might be expected at any instant,
they would not be so useful as if they were unhurt. Worst of all, six of
the men lost that day had their muskets with them, and ammunition in
their pouches; also, a small barrel of powder had been among the stores
abandoned when the first surprise took place.
We no longer possessed the advantage of our enemies being without
fire-arms. That they knew how to use them we soon had proof, for several
times during the night muskets were fired in the woods around us. The
slugs or whatever they used fell short, and though they kept us on the
alert they did us no actual harm.
All night long we also worked hard at improving our fortifications. As
the platforms erected, though protected against spears and arrows, were
not safe from musketry fire, on my suggestion we dug pits at different
points round the inside of our boma, and a ditch to connect them, so
that we could run to the most threatened points without danger from
bullets.
At daybreak, though we could see the natives swarming in the woods, and
evidently prepared to swoop down on us if we left our cover, we were
able to snatch a little rest, only leaving a few of our number to keep a
look-out on their movements. Up till the middle of the afternoon they
did not attempt to annoy us; but then we saw bodies of men come out from
the jungle, headed by men who carried our lost muskets, while the barrel
of powder was borne behind them in triumph. We tried one or two shots in
the hope of drawing their fire, but it had only the effect of making
them keep out of range; and as we could afford no ammunition for fancy
firing and long shots, we let them go on as they chose without
interference.
After a time we saw men bringing trees and branches and building a sort
of boma round the clearing in which our camp was situated. Soon we saw
their intention was to enclose us, so that if we attempted to force our
way out they would have the advantage of the position, and that we were
now caught like rats in a trap.
Some of the men now began to despond, and said if one of the parties of
slaves had been intercepted all might have been. There was no chance of
Tipolo coming to our relief, and we had best surrender, for the worst
that would happen to us was to be made slaves, and as well be the slaves
of Mona Mkulla as be killed.
Hatibu’s look of anger and indignation when he heard this craven counsel
was a sight worthy of a painter. He rated the men who made it as cowards
and dogs, and said the idea that men from “the island” should become
slaves to these heathen was not to be entertained for one instant. Those
who wished to be slaves could go at once, and there would be more food
and more powder for those who remained behind. The effect of his fiery
indignation was to put a stop to all mention of surrender, and all we
could do was now to wait patiently for assistance, or for the
deliverance from our sufferings by death.
Two or three times the natives seemed to make up their mind to take us
by assault, but each time when they came within range of our fire they
faltered and fell back, and never pushed their attack home. Soon they
confined their annoyance to insults and gibes, and in the darkness of
night sending men armed with our muskets to keep us on the alert by a
dropping fire. As we were well sheltered in our pits, we did not care
for this last form of offence at all; in fact we were rather glad of
it, as we knew that they were expending their powder uselessly.
On the third day of our blockade we were destined to a fresh and more
painful experience than we had yet encountered. One of the men who had
been very slightly wounded with an arrow on the fore arm came to Hatibu
and complained that he felt shooting pains in his arm. We did all we
could by bathing it with cold water; but his pains increased, and soon
he fell into most frightful convulsions. He begged for water, being
consumed by thirst, but was utterly unable to swallow owing to the
convulsive action of his throat, and soon his jaw became locked. He now
endured the most frightful agony, his body becoming at times as rigid as
a bar of steel, while pieces of wood which he gripped in his hands were
crumbled into splinters. Sometimes the action of his muscles was so
powerful as to bend him like a bow backwards, and then there were
spasmodic relaxations and twitchings which seemed to tear him in pieces.
For four or five hours he endured this agony, and before he died three
more of our wounded men were seized in the same manner. We could do
nothing whatever to relieve them, but could only remain passive
spectators of their horrible and intense agony. All four had been
wounded with arrows; and five others, who had also received arrow
wounds, became so powerfully affected by seeing the sufferings of their
fellows, that they too fell victims to the fell demon of lockjaw. I
cannot describe a tithe of the extraordinary things they suffered, and
if I did I do not think that I should be believed; but one of them in
his agony seized a hardwood spear-shaft in his teeth and bedded them so
deeply that after death it could not be taken out of his mouth.
Curiously enough the remainder of the wounded men, whose wounds being
from spears were much larger and apparently more serious than those from
the arrows, did not suffer from lockjaw, and all their wounds healed up
kindly. The sufferers themselves ascribed their torments to the arrows
being poisoned; but I afterwards found that it was not the case that our
enemies used poisoned arrows in war, but reserved them for hunting.
Their fighting arrows were tipped with pieces of excessively hard wood
made as sharp as needles; and I believe that the truth is, that a
punctured wound is likely to cause lockjaw, while a cut or a gash will
not.
All these nine poor fellows died, thus reducing our number to
twenty-four. We had hard work to make shift to bury the dead; but this,
however, after much toil we managed to do, scraping and digging their
graves to a depth of about four feet, and arranging over their bodies a
screen of grass and branches so that no clods of earth should fall
directly on them. Hatibu, who had been brought up in the house of Hamees
ibu Sayf’s father at Zanzibar, recited some verses of the Koran over
them. All was done by the survivors that lay in their power to render
the poor fellows’ funeral decent according to their ideas.
This dreadful visitation seemed to depress the spirits of our people
very much, and whispers as to the advisability of our surrendering began
again to be heard. At last I hit upon an idea to inspirit my companions,
which, when I mentioned it to Hatibu, he approved of immensely. Our
besiegers, in order to shelter themselves from the weather, had built
thatched sheds close against their boma, and, time hanging heavy on
their hands, they had amused themselves with making screens and
divisions of grass, which now through the action of the sun were as dry
as tinder.
My proposal was that about four in the morning, when all would be sound
asleep, I should creep out with a fire-brand and set all these grass
erections on fire. Hatibu did not wish me to run the risk alone. I
pointed out that one man would have a better chance of success than
many, and that as through his kindness to me I owed my life to him, I
begged to be allowed to undertake the task by myself. After much
discussion he consented. As he saw we ran the same risk as our enemies
if our camp was set on fire, and unlike them had no place of retreat, he
gave orders for all our thatch and screens to be pulled down and burned,
care being taken to prevent a general conflagration.
The natives outside seemed to take this as a sign that we were about to
surrender, and in the evening we could hear drums and marimba and signs
of rejoicing. They kept up singing, dancing, and drumming till nearly
two in the morning. At this I was very glad, for I knew they would
sleep extra sound for the rest of the night. At last, all being quiet
and still, I crept out and made my way to a hut as big as a haystack
where Mona Mkulla had his head-quarters, and arriving at the boma of the
natives I hurled my fire-brand over it into the hut. I thought I had
been the only one to quit our camp, but as this big hut burst into
flames I saw three other places had been fired likewise, and on
regaining our camp I found that Hatibu and two other men had gone out
the moment after me on a like errand.
The natives’ huts blazed up merrily, and we could see them working hard
to try to save their belongings. About five minutes after Hatibu and the
others had returned to the camp, the large hut that I had fired fell in,
and immediately after there was a great explosion. Evidently the keg of
powder which had been abandoned by our men had been placed there and had
now blown up. For a few moments after the explosion there was a deep
silence; but soon there arose shouts and yells and sounds of mourning,
and it was evident that some great person or persons had been killed by
the gunpowder.
When day broke we could see that not only all the huts had been burned,
but there were also great gaps in the boma of the natives. Men were busy
in repairing these, and drums were signalling to all the villages in the
neighbourhood. Some of our men who understood the drum-beats said that
they were spreading the news that Mona Mkulla was dead, and calling on
all their warriors to come and avenge him.
Hatibu said if that were the case we might expect to be attacked in our
camp, for now they would consider it necessary to kill us all as a
sacrifice to his spirit. Men would be selected for the task who would be
given a choice between being killed at his grave and attacking us. As
for us, no terms of surrender would be entertained, but all that we
could do when the attack was delivered was to die fighting. Now that
there was no prospect of escape, unless by some unheard of good fortune
relief should come in time from Hamees ibu Sayf, one and all rose to the
occasion, and determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible.
As our present enclosure was too large for us to defend if attacked on
all sides at once, we set about making a smaller one inside, into which
we could retreat when our assailants came close to the outer one, and
from which we could harass them considerably whilst they were making
their way through the remains of the old one. This kept us employed all
day. At night we divided ourselves into two parties, one to keep watch
while the other slept, for we did not know at what moment the attack
might be delivered, and we could make out that our besiegers were
receiving reinforcements every hour.
The night passed away without our being assailed. About an hour after
sunrise four bodies of about a hundred men each rushed at each side of
our camp. As soon as they came within effective range we fired our
muskets loaded with stones above the bullets. This discharge was most
effective, and staggered our assailants, some of whom broke and fled;
but on reaching the woods they were speared down without mercy by the
people there. Seeing that the only chance of life lay in killing us, the
remainder pressed on again; but we had time to reload and give them
another volley before they reached our outer defences, and to retreat
into our inner citadel.
Whilst the storming party were making their way through our outer
defences we were able to knock over many of them. Our ammunition soon
gave out. We could have still further decreased their numbers by hurling
our spears at them; but this would have left us destitute of weapons for
the hand-to-hand fight now imminent, save a few knives and hatchets, and
we had to look on passively while they tore away the tree trunks and
branches which we had piled up with so much care and toil.
At last this was done, and for a few moments they paused before
delivering their final onslaught. The position of affairs now was
this:--Inside a small circle, formed by a rude _abattis_ which might be
twenty yards or rather more in diameter, was our party of twenty-four
grasping their weapons, and every man prepared to sell his life as
dearly as he could. Outside were assembled about two hundred and fifty
men, animated like us by the courage of despair, who were gathering up
their energies for the supreme moment. The masses of people who had kept
within the shelter of the woods while firing had been going on, were
pressing forward, now that our ammunition had given out, and doubtless
in a few moments they would be so carried away by their lust for slaying
that they would rush in upon us.
For some minutes there was a lull and silence, which was broken by the
beating of the big drums of the natives. Then with a yell the storming
party rushed at us, hurling their spears before them and holding their
shields above their heads to cover themselves. The first flight of
spears knocked over four of our men; but now we were able to return
them, and in the short distance which the enemy had to cover I suppose
each of our number killed at least two of our assailants. It became
sheer hand-to-hand fighting, and gradually they made their way through
and over our last shelter. We were at last driven to the centre, where
four or five of us, all that were now left alive, stood back to back and
resisted fiercely. The spear which I was using I thrust so deeply into
the body of a man that was opposed to me that I could not withdraw it,
and had to draw a hatchet from my belt for my last means of offence and
defence. The man whom I had just killed had his place filled by another,
who thrust fiercely at me. I managed to guide his spear to one side, and
buried my hatchet in his brain. My companions, too, bore themselves like
men, and a rampart of bodies was gradually being formed around us. We
were all wounded, and two were beaten down on their knees.
I thought my last moment had come as a huge fellow, tearing away the
corpses that sheltered us to some extent, raised his spear to thrust me
through. I threw my hatchet at him, and fortunately struck its edge full
in his face. He fell backwards, but his place was immediately filled. I
was able to seize the spear of my fresh foe, and a struggle for its
possession began between us. I knew my chance of life was hopeless, but
the warlike spirit of our Norse and Saxon forefathers was on me, and I
felt that if only I could kill this one man I should die happy.
Suddenly we heard the sound of guns, and in a few seconds the shouts of
men. Hatibu, who was by me, shouted, “_Allah il Allah!_ Wanguana,
Wanyamwesi, Tipolo! Fight, men, fight! we are saved!”
Our assailants now broke and fled, and we could see some four or five
hundred men, armed with guns, driving our enemies before them like
sheep.