— 30 — twice we attempted to ascend them but twice we were beaten back. Now, as it chanced, there was one very high and precipitous crag that reached almost to heaven, and I determined to climb to its summit. With fifteen followers I made my way by night to its base where I left all but five of my men, after instructing those at the bottom to open fire or ever they heard a gunshot in the morning. With the remainder I scaled this crag and lay watching over the sleeping village beneath my feet. Then came the first glimmer of dawn and, as the darkness was banished by the night, I looked and beheld the savages below, so many in number that were one to drop a pin from heaven it could not have reached the ground ere that it had alighted upon one of them. Then we attacked them from the earth below and the heights above, which instilled such terror and dismay into the savages that they fled away, thinking that there was a vast host concealed among the rocks. But we sent a messenger to them and made proclamation of safety and security.

I then reigned over the country and all the adjoining territory as far as the Bahr el Arab, making as my capital a place called Bayyu, which was afterwards known as Deim el Zubeir. So I became king there, and the people gathered round from the neighbouring states to serve under me, until I had accumulated arms