other, and enjoined them not to fire, until arrows were first shot at them. The black soldiers, who were mostly recruits, I admonished especially not to be _filles de joie_ (the usual expression here applied to those who exhibit fear in discharging their guns), but men (rigàl, sing. ragel), to grasp the gun firmly, and to take good aim. Our blacks are generally very much afraid of the report of guns, and do exactly as the Greeks did at the commencement of their war for freedom; they lay the butt-end on the thigh, and fire at random. On the White River, also, the report of these unknown weapons was more feared than the real danger itself. They listened to me; but then came the vessel of Captain Mohammed Agà, a fool-hardy Arnaut, who is always trying to distinguish himself in some way or another. He shouted to the sandal to cut away the rope, although the men were still on land. This was about to be done, when the tallest negro, who had twisted the rope round a little tree, pointed his bow at the sailor who was about to cut it through with his knife. He laughed at the same time, and it was clear that he was not in earnest; for he had wrestled in a friendly manner with the other sailors, when they tried to get the rope from him, without making use of his weapons. Yet the Arnaut commanded them to “fire,” whilst he had already aimed at the incautious native, being the first to discharge his piece. In a moment all three vessels fired away, as though they were beset by the devil. I was only able to pull back a couple of fellows whose guns had flashed in the pan. Eleven or twelve other victims followed the first, who was knocked over by the captain’s shot. Those who went away wounded were not counted. An old woman was shot down by an Egyptian standing near me, and yet he boasted of this heroic deed, as did all the others of theirs. There might have been from twenty-five to thirty natives collected together at that place, scarcely thirty paces from us, and the high-standing straw might have concealed several more.