I found my clothes, however, with some difficulty, and tore them a little in putting them on. At last I went out. All our people were up, as well as the Germans. On inquiring the news, I learned that a band of robbers had attacked us; from six to ten had been counted. My servants had all decamped, with the exception of Saïd. Some of them had been struck by the robbers, and others had been threatened, and had ran away. My servant Saïd, as soon as he sallied out and saw what was going on, seized his matchlock, and pointed it at the assailants, especially those who were removing the saharees (large square boxes). Upon this they began to quake, and, parleying with Saïd, begged for mercy, and said they would go immediately if the powder was not used against them. Saïd took them at their word, and they ran off. They had already, however, carried away about nine pounds of tea, packed in tin boxes. It is probable they mistook these boxes of tin for silver, or considered their contents to be money, gold and silver, although their lightness should have undeceived them. As the Arabic Bibles and Testaments were packed up with the tea, they carried off a Bible with them. But this they afterwards dropped on the road, and it was picked up by a shepherdess, and brought to me. They also took away a pewter dish and two bags of grounded ghaseb, besides ripping open the bags of the blacks. This appears to be the amount of the robbery and devastation; very fortunate are we it was not worse. We had watched many nights, and had often loaded our guns; but this night, when the thieves came, we were miserably unprepared to receive them. The Germans had been cleaning their guns, and all were unloaded. Overweg had his fowling-piece charged with small shot. At length we got two or three guns in trim, and our servants followed the robbers, but nothing of them was to be seen. The cowards had fled at the first show of resistance. In the morning, on searching through the small valley up which they had come, we were surprised to find marks of no less than thirteen camels--enough to carry away all our goods. So that it is probable there were some thirteen robbers, a part of whom remained with the camels whilst the others attacked us. Amankee, on being knocked down with a shield, got up again, and ran off to the town, giving the alarm everywhere. En-Noor, as soon as the news of this aggression reached him, sent off a _posse_ of people, and then called in the inhabitants of a neighbouring village; so that, when all was over, our encampment was surrounded by a disorderly multitude of protectors till day-light. To my tent came the confidential servant of En-Noor, and everybody was talking, drinking coffee, and making merry. After all, it was well to have these people, for if the thirteen robbers had shown ordinary courage, in our unprepared state we should have had a good deal of work to do, and might some of us have got bad sword-cuts or spear-thrusts.