The 2nd Battalion also landed on the 14th, and being disembarked by eleven in the forenoon, and marching from the left of the line along the front of the other regiments towards the right, were sent on in advance, after being broken up into wings; the right wing consisting of four companies under Colonel Lawrence; the left wing, also of four companies, under Major Norcott.[226] They advanced about five miles, the former moving to the eastward occupied the village of Kentúgan; the left wing advancing to the northward occupied Kamishli. On this march the right wing captured a convoy of seventy arrabas (country carts) drawn by oxen, and laden for the most part with flour. Colonel Lawrence appropriated two dromedaries, part of the spoil, for the use of his wing; where they did good service as baggage animals till the drivers contrived to elope with them in the winter. During the time that the Riflemen occupied Kentúgan and Kamishli they made friends of the inhabitants. ‘Their chief favourites, it seems, were the men of the Rifle Brigade. Quartered for a day or two in one of the villages, these soldiers made up for the want of a common tongue by acts of kindness. They helped the women in their household work; and the women, pleased and proud, made signs to the stately Rifles to do this and to do that, exulting in the obedience which they were able to win from men so grand and comely. When the interpreter came, and was asked to construe what the women were saying so fast and so eagerly, it appeared that they were busy with similes and metaphors, and that the Rifles were made out to be heroes more strong than lions, more gentle than young lambs.’[227] The wing at Kentúgan occupied the residence of a person of some substance whose property they protected from the ravages of the French, who however pillaged the village. During the stay of the Battalion in these villages, some amusing alarms from Cossacks took place. They were seen hovering about in the distance, and a night attack being expected, the companies of the right wing manifested their vigilance by very nearly firing into one of their own reliefs; while in the left wing a stray horse or a cow was taken for the expected Cossacks. On another occasion an Aide-de-Camp from the Commander of the cavalry having demanded immediate assistance, the four companies under Lawrence were soon under arms, and went at the double to afford the required aid. They were met however by a message of thanks, and an assurance that their help was not needed. It appeared afterwards that the vedettes had mistaken their front, and that the supposed enemy was some of their own force.