1 378 NATIVE MARKSMEN.
2 thrown up, but as there was nothing more for
3 “me to do, 1 returned to camp, which was
4 pitched near a fortified enclosure, and which I
5 reached at five in the evening, having been in
6 the saddle, with scarcely any intermission, for
7 fifteen hours. I was, as may be supposed, con-
8 siderably well fagged, and, having had nothing
9 to taste since the preceding night, tolerably
10 nigh being famished, and glad to lay hold of
11 a biscuit wherewith to stay the cravings of my
12 appetite. At eight o’clock, Captain Ferris and
13 Colonel Wade having waited until the position
14 was entirely enclosed by a parapet and thick
15 brushwood, by way of an abattis where such was
16 required, came back, and told me that about an
17 hour after I had left, some marksmen had got
18 on to an island within range of their situation,
19 from which they blazed away, and killed one
20 man and wounded two others before they could
21 be dislodged. A strong guard was left to
22 defend the village and ground we had oc-
23 cupied.*
24 * Froia the raw levies and miscellaneous composition of
25 the Shah Zada’s force, it was the invariable practice of the