Mexico and Its Religion: With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events Connected With Places VisitedWilson, Robert Anderson
Religion
Mexico and Its Religion: With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events Connected With Places Visited
Wilson, Robert Anderson
Mexico -- Description and travel; Mexico -- Religion
If their number may be calculated by the space of
ground occupied by the entire body, it must have amounted to
upward of 40,000. The Griquas pursued them about eight miles; and
though they continued desperate, they seemed filled with terror
at the enemies by whom they had been overcome.... As fighting was
not my province, I avoided discharging a single shot, though, at
the request of Mr. Melville and the chiefs, I remained with the
commando as the only means of safety. Seeing the savage ferocity
of the Bechuanas in killing the inoffensive women and children
for the sake of a few paltry rings, or to boast that they had
killed some of the Mantatees, I turned my attention to these
objects of pity, who were flying in consternation in all
directions. By my galloping in among them, many of the Bechuanas
were deterred from their barbarous purpose. Shortly after they
began to retreat, the women, seeing that mercy was shown them,
instead of flying, generally sat down, and, baring their bosoms,
exclaimed, 'I am a woman. I am a woman.' It seemed impossible for
the men to yield. There were several instances of wounded men
being surrounded by fifty Bechuanas, but it was not till life was
almost extinct that a single one would allow himself to be
conquered. I saw more than one instance of a man fighting boldly
with ten or twelve spears or arrows fixed in his body.... The
men, struggling with death, would raise themselves from the
ground, and discharge their weapons at any one of our number
within their reach: their hostile and revengeful spirit only
ceased when life was extinct. Contemplating this deadly conflict,
we could not but admire the mercy of God that not one of our
number was killed, and only one slightly wounded. One Bechuana
lost his life while too eagerly seeking for plunder. The slain of
the enemy was between four and five hundred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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