Having stood here for a few minutes on the steep bank, looking down into the stream, which rolled unceasingly along, cutting off our further progress, we turned our horses’ heads in the direction from which we had come, while our friends endeavoured to soothe their disappointment by saying, that if the pagans had escaped from their hands, they would certainly not fail to fall into the power of their enemies, viz. the pagans who lived on the other side of the river under the protection of Bagírmi. We thus turned our backs upon the river, my European companion and I greatly satisfied with our day’s work, which had afforded us a sight of this fine stream, but our companions, in sullen silence and disappointment, on account of the expected spoil having escaped from their hands. Indeed, where they had expected to find that “El Dorado,” that walled town full of male and female slaves, I never succeeded in ascertaining. The whole day’s spoil was limited to a handful of slaves—unfortunate creatures whom sickness or ill-advised courage prevented from leaving their native villages,—besides a couple of cattle, a few goats, fowls, and a little corn, but principally groundnuts, of which large quantities were carried off by the hungry Kánembú spearmen. The whole army was in such a mood as to be glad to find any object on which to vent its anger; and such a one soon presented itself, for when we again reached that channel-like watercourse which I have mentioned above, and were watering our horses, four natives were seen, who, evidently confiding in their courage and their skill in swimming, had here taken refuge in the deepest part of the water, in order to give information to their countrymen of the retreat of the enemy. As soon as our friends caught sight of this little troop of heroes, they determined to sacrifice them to their vengeance. With this view, the whole of the cavalry arranged themselves in close lines on each side of the water. But the task was not so easy as it appeared at first; and all the firing of the bad marksmen was in vain, the Músgu diving with remarkable agility. When the vizier saw that in this way these heroes could not be overpowered, he ordered some Kánembú to enter the water; and a very singular kind of combat arose, the like of which I had never seen before, and which required an immense deal of energy, for, while these people had to sustain themselves above the water with the help of their feet, they had at the same time to jump up, throw the spear, and parry the thrusts of their adversaries. The poor Músgu people, on their side, were not only fighting for their lives, but even, as it were, for their national honour. They were of large and muscular frame, single-handed far superior to the Kánembú; but at length, after a protracted struggle, the superior numbers of the Kánembú got the upper hand, and the corpses of three of the Músgu were seen swimming on the surface of the water.