It was about 5 P.M. one hour before sunset. The woman who usually brought us water delivered her jar, but disappeared immediately after without sweeping the courtyard as was her custom. Her children, who usually played in this inclosure, had vanished. On searching her hut, which was in one corner of the yard, no one was to be found, and even the grinding-stone was gone. Suspecting that something was in the wind, I sent Karka and Gaddum Her, the two black servants, to search in various huts in the neighbourhood to observe if the owners were present, and whether the women were in their houses. Not a woman could be found. Neither woman nor child remained in the large town of Tarrangolle. There was an extraordinary stillness where usually all was noise and chattering. All the women and children had been removed to the mountains about two miles distant, and this so quickly and noiselessly that it appeared incredible. I immediately sent to the house of the chief, and requested his attendance. There were two chiefs, brothers; Moy was the greater in point of rank, but his brother, Commoro, had more actual authority with the people. I was glad that the latter appeared. I sent to request an interpreter from the Turks, and upon his arrival I asked Commoro why the women and children had been removed. He replied, "That the Turks were so brutal that he could not prevail upon his people to endure it any longer; their women were robbed and beaten, and they were all so ill-treated, that he, as their chief, had no longer any control over them; and that the odium of having introduced the Turks to Latooka was thrown upon him." I asked him whether any of my men had misbehaved. I explained that I should flog any one of my men who should steal the merest trifle from his people, or insult any women. All my men were in dark-brown uniforms. He said, "That none of the men with the brown clothes had been complained of, but that his people had taken a dislike to all strangers, owing to the conduct of the Turks, and that he could not answer for the consequences." There was a division among his own people, some wishing to fight and to serve the Turks as the Latookas had served the party of Mahommed Her, and others yielding to his advice, and agreeing to remain quiet. I inquired whether the chief, Moy, intended peace or war. He said, "That Bokke, his wife, had made him very angry against the Turks by describing their conduct towards the women." This was rather an unsatisfactory state of things. Commoro departed, frankly admitting that the natives were much excited and wished to attack, but that he would do his best with them. These rascally TRADERS set every country in a blaze by their brutal conduct, and rendered exploring, not only most dangerous but next to impossible, without an exceedingly powerful force.