414 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY " unfortunate creatures whom sickness or ill - advised courage prevented from leaving their native villages." The pagans made occasionally a desperate and sometimes even an heroic defence, but the superior arms, and still more the numbers of the Bornuese troops, invariably secured the victory. The country which was the scene of these operations is described, not only as well cultivated, but as densely inhabited. The villages themselves afforded everywhere the same appearance of comfort and cheerfulness, and in their wholesale destruction by fire, the destruction of the granaries which they contained was of even more importance than the destruction of the huts themselves, for as the grain was already harvested, this must have meant, not only starvation during the winter, but the loss of seed corn for the ensuing season.

Scenes of fire and sword during the active days of the expedition were succeeded at intervals by the partition of the prisoners. This proceeding was accompanied, says Dr. Barth, by the " most heartrending scenes caused by the numbers of young children, and even Infants, who were to be distributed, many of those poor creatures bemg mercilessly torn away from their mothers, never to see them again." This comment indicates also that the raid was carried on over the country of higher-class pagans. The lower types part in many instances with perfect indifference from their young. Cattle was, of course, carried off, ""as well as slaves, wherever it was met with.

The expedition returned on this occasion, after two months, to Bornu, and when the total gains were reckoned up, they were found to amount to something over 3000 slaves and 10,000 head of cattle. The slaves consisted almost entirely of women and young persons, mostly children, and the slaughter of full-grown males was said to have amounted to no more than 300, or one in ten. The great majority of full-grown males had therefore escaped, as had the more active of the full-grown young women. Of the 3000 taken, the commander-in-chief