242 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

Partarrieau had removed from Looboogol to a village about four miles from where we then were.

Having procured a guide we moved on at a smart pace, and soon arrived in front of the village, where were assembled a number of armed men apparently waiting our arrival ; for on our approaching them, they desired us to keep off and would have proceeded to force had not our guide told them our intentions were good. One of the villagers, apparently a chief, then came forward, and, offering me his hand, invited me to the shade of a tree, where we were no sooner arrived than surrounded by a crowd of armed men, who without further ceremony attempted to tear the clothes off my men's backs, and their arms out of their hands. This sort of treatment was too rough to be borne with sang froid. My men, eleven in number, therefore made some resistance, and removed in a body to a short distance from where I was standing, but had scarcely moved when the warcry was set up by the Foolahs, and afire of musquetry opened by them on my men, whose arms were almost useless from the rain of the preceding night, and consequently they were unable to make the resistance they might otherwise have done. Three of them were already wounded, as were three ofthe Foolahs, when Thierno Bayla arrived from the village and offering me his hand