The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-10-16

1 saw ten of our men leap into one
large schanse, but although 1 watched
for some time, nobody came out.
Afterward we inspected the place.
and found these all dead, together with
twen.y-three Matukus.
Neither side would give in, and they
| had fought it out to the bitter end.
At last they neared the second line
of Notifications, behind which the
whole remaining Matuku force, num-
bering some two thousand men, was
rapidly assembling.
One little pause to get their breath,
and they came at it with a rush, and
a long wild shout of "Bulala Matuku"
(kill the Matuku) that went right
through me.
Then came an answering shout, and
the sounds of heavy firing, and pres
/ emily I saw our men retreating, some
what fewer in number han they had
advanced.
Their welcome had been a warm one,
for the Matuku fight splendidly behind
walls.
This decided me that 1t was neces-
! sary to create a diversion.
If we did not do so, it seemed very
probable that we should be worsted
| after all.
I called to the captain Of our little
, force, and rapidly put the position be-
! fore him.
Seeing the urgency of the occasion,
| lie agreed with me that we must risk
| it, and in two minutes more we were,
with the exception of my own men,
whom I left to guard the wounded,
trotting across the open space and
through the deserted town, toward the
spot where the struggle was taking
place, some seven hundred yards away.
In seven or eight minutes we reached
q group Of huts-it was a headman's
kraal, that was situated about a hun
dred and twenty yards behind the for
titled wall-and took possession of it
unobserved.
The enemy was too much engaged
with the foe in front of them to notice
us, and besides. the broken ground
rose in a hog-back shape between.
There we waited a minute or two
and recovered our breath, while I gave
my directions.
So soon as we heard the Butiana
Impi begin to charge again, we were to
run out in line to the brow Of the hog
back, and pour our fire into the mass
of the defenders behind the wall.
Then the guns were to be thrown
down. and we must charge with the
assegai.
We had no shields, but that could not
be helped; there would be no time to
reload the guns, and it was absolutely
necessary that the enemy should be
disconnected at the moment that the
main attack was delivered.
The men, who were as plucky a set
of fellows Is ever 1 saw, and whose
blood was now thoroughly up, consent
ed to this scheme, though 1 could see
that they thought it rather large or.
der, as indeed did myself.
But I knew that if the Impi was
driven back a second time the game
would be up, and for me, at any rate.
it would be a case of the "thing that
bites," and this sure and certain knowl-
edge filled my breast with valor.
We had not long to wait.
Presently we heard the Butiana war
song swelling loud and long.
They had commenced their attack.
1 made a sign, and the hundred and
fifty men, headed by myself, poured
out of the kraal. and getting into
rough line, ran up the fifty or sixty
yards of slope that interviewed between
ourselves and the crest of the hog
backed ridge. .------~.---
In thirty seconds we were there, and
Immediately beyond us was the main
! body of the Matuku host, waiting the
onslaught Of the enemy with guns and
spears.
Even now they did not see us, so in
tent were they upon the coming at
tack.
I signed to my men to take careful
aim, and suddenly called out to them
to fire, which they did with a will,
dropping thirty or forty Matukus.
"Charge" 1 shouted again, throwing
down my smoking rifle, and drawing
my revolver, an example which they
followed, snatching up their spears
from the ground where they had placed,
them while the fired.
The men set up a savage whoop, and
| we started.
1 saw the Matuku soldiers wheel
round in hundreds, utterly taken aback
at this new development of the situa-
ton.
And looking over them, before we
had gone twenty yards, saw some
thing else.
For of sudden, as though they had
risen from the earth, there appeared
above the wall hundreds of great
spears followed by hundreds of savage
faces shadowed with dropping plumes.
(To be continuedlI.