In the meanwhile the Tawárek whom we had with us, beat their shields in their usual furious manner, and raised the war-cry; the night was very dark, and I at length fired a shot, which informed our friends of our whereabouts. We found the Sheikh close to the town south of the “ródha,” with a large host of people, Tawárek as well as Arabs, Songhay, and even Fullán. The Fútáwi, Ismʿaíl, who from his knowledge of colonial life in St. Louis or Ndér, afforded me a constant source of entertainment as well as vexation, welcomed us with a song, and all the people gathered around us in motley confusion. The spectacle formed by this multifarious host, thronging among the sand-hills in the pale moonlight, was highly interesting, and would have been more so to me, if I could have been a tranquil observer of the scene; but, as I was the chief cause of this disturbance, several of my friends, especially the Imám, Háj el Mukhtár, whom I had known in Bornú, made their way to me, and begged me to beware of treachery. The Sheikh himself despatched his most trustworthy servant to inform me that I had better keep in the midst of the Tawárek, whom he himself thought much more trustworthy than the Arabs. The Kél-úlli forthwith formed a square round me, but at the same time made a joke of it, trying an experiment as to the warlike disposition of my horse, by pushing against me with one side of the square, while beating their shields, till, being thrown back upon the other side, I spurred my horse and drove them to their former position. Excited by this animated scene, my noble charger, to the great amusement of this turbulent host, began to neigh from sheer delight. Meanwhile the brothers had dismounted, together with their trusty councillors, and were wasting the time in useless consultation, while some Fullán horsemen were roving about and kept me on my guard; but one of them was dismounted against his inclination. His horse received a wound either from the stump of a tree or from a spear, and thus he remained the sole victim of this glorious and memorable night’s campaign. At length, having moved to and fro for some time, we approached the outskirts of the Áberaz, and there took up our position. But the Fullán and Songhay, who had likewise assembled at the beating of the alarm drum, being arranged in front of us, notwithstanding their cowardly disposition, it did not seem likely that we should be allowed to get inside the town without bloodshed, and I protested repeatedly to the Sheikh, that nothing was more repugnant to my feelings, than that blood should be shed on my account, and perhaps his own life be endangered.