As the day broke on the morning of the 28th of April, a most interesting scene presented itself. The sultan of Mandara was close on our flank, mounted on a very beautiful cream-coloured horse, with several large red marks about him, and followed by his six favourite eunuchs, and thirty of his sons, all being finely dressed, and mounted on really superb horses; besides which, they had each from five to six others, led by as many negroes: the sultan had at least twelve. Barca Gana’s people all wore their red scarfs, or bornouses, over their steel jackets, and the whole had a very fine effect. I took my position at his right hand, and at a spot called Duggur we entered a very thick wood, in two columns, at the end of which it was said we were to find the enemy. During the latter part of the night, while riding on in front with Maramy, the sheikh’s negro, who had accompanied me from Kouka, and who appeared to attach himself more closely to me as we approached danger, we had started several animals of the leopard species, who ran from us so swiftly, twisting their long tails in the air, as to prevent our getting near them. We, however, now started one of a larger kind, which Maramy assured me was so satiated with the blood of a negro, whose carcass we found lying in the wood, that he would be easily killed. I rode up to the spot just as a Shouaa had planted the first spear in him, which passed through the neck, a little above the shoulder, and came down between the animal’s legs; he rolled over, broke the spear, and bounded off with the lower half in his body. Another Shouaa galloped up within two arms’ length, and thrust a second through his loins; and the savage animal, with a woful howl, was in the act of springing on his pursuer, when an Arab shot him through the head with a ball, which killed him on the spot. It was a male panther (zazerma) of a very large size, and measured, from the point of the tail to the nose, eight feet two inches; the skin was yellow, and beautifully marked with orbicular spots on the upper part of the body, while underneath, and at the throat, the spots were oblong and irregular, intermixed with white. These animals are found in great numbers in the woods bordering on Mandara: there are also leopards, the skins of which I saw, but not in great numbers. The panthers are as insidious as they are cruel; they will not attack any thing that is likely to make resistance, but have been known to watch a child for hours, while near the protection of huts or people. It will often spring on a grown person, male or female, while carrying a burthen, but always from behind: the flesh of a child or of a young kid it will sometimes devour, but when any full-grown animal falls a prey to its ferocity, it sucks the blood alone.