'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎79] (96/258)

LIEUT. BURTON’S MISFORTUNES.
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or to hurl, npxt attracted his attention, and at these he discharged two barrels,
wounding one of the men ; he then went forward into a crowd of Somalis, who
were following in the wake of the two just mentioned, and fired his third barrel,
wounding another Somali, but at the same time he received two spear wounds on
the shoulder. The deadly revolver was again levelled, and was already within
two paces of the breast of one of his assailants, but it would no longer revolve,
and a smart cudgel blow over the lungs felled Lieutenant Speke to the ground—
■whilst down two or three Somalis jumped on him and bound his hands behind his
back, and led him away to the rear a captive—and as he then supposed to be
slaughtered—here we must leave him for the present. Lieutenant Burton sallied
out,scymitar in hand, anil desperately wounded two of the Somalis, but was pre
vented from doing further execution, by a spear being thrust through his left
cheek, through the palate, and passing out through the right cheek ; he was thus
rendered ‘ hors de combat'. Pulling the spear out of his mouth, he made his way
out of the Somalis, and in effecting this he was materially assisted by the Balyooz:
in retiring from the field, Lieutenant Burton came upon a party of his followers
whom he tried to rally, but all in vain ; they had already proved their discretion,
though at the expense of their honor and valor. In the meantime Lieutenant
Herne was not idle, thrice he discharged his ‘ Colt,’ twice with deadly effect, but
the cap failed him in pulling the trigger for the fourth time, and having no
sword or other weapon with him, he was compelled to acton the advice of the
Balyooz, to beat a retreat, in which he succeeded, knocking about him on all sides
with the butt end of his pistol—the Somalis fell back, making a way for him, and
allowed him to pass through the midst of them unscathed except from the blows
of cudgels. Of Lieutenant Stroyan’s further proceedings, unfortunate^, nothing
is known. His butler states that he saw him fire his revolver six times, but he
did not see him fall. There is no doubt but that.emulating his brave companions,
he offered a most active and determined resistance, during which he received two
severe wounds, one on the forehead, from either a stone or spear, which pene
trated his skull, the other, a spear wound, through his chest—either of these was
sufficient to cause instantaneous death—there were five other spear wounds on
the body when it was recovered on the morning of the 19th of April. The Balyooz
was cool and collected and exerted himself to his utmost to bring off the Sahib
logue ; though deficient of the thumb of his right hand, and thus unable to fight,
he shunned not the fray, but close by the side of his employers, was in the midst
ofthe Somalis. Of the rest of the native followers a few of the Seedees and a
Somali made some stand, in which three of their number were wounded—the rest
disappeared on the attack first becoming known. The attacking party is compu
ted to have consisted of from 100 to 150 men, chiefly of the Essa Moosa and Aryal
Ahmed divisions of the Habar Awal tribe ; their loss was about six men either
killed or wounded—there seems no reason to doubt but that at first, the sole
object of the Somalis was plunder, but meeting with such a determined resistance,
and some of their number having been wounded, a cry was raised to ‘ kill the
Sahib logue who were killing the Somalis. With such an advantage in numbers
in their favor—namely, fifteen or twenty to one—the Somalis in less than ten
minutes obtained entire possession of the camp of the officers. Lieut. Stroyan was
dead on the ground, Lieut. Speke was bound and a prisoner in their hands, Lieut.
Burton had escaped severely wounded—Lieutenant Herne alone had escaped un-
hurt— of the others two of the Seedees were lying wounded on the ground, the
rest had dispersed. Lieutenant Speke’s captor had told him that none of his pai ty
had been killed, and that therefore he would not kill him _ Lieut. Speke begged
of him to tie his hands in front of his body, instead of behind his back, as he was
in excruciating pain, and could scarcely breathe, and asked for a little watei to
drink, to both of which requests, his janitor had the humanity to accede and
thus, as the sequel will shew, saved Lieut. Speke 5 lile. Towards day-break on