It was extraordinary to see the heads of the combatants
moving among the reeds as they stabbed at each other with the great
spears, till one went down. There were few wounded in that fray, for
those who fell sank in the mud and water and were drowned.
On the whole the Pongo, who were operating in what was almost their
native element, were getting the best of it, and driving the Mazitu
back. But what decided the day against them were the guns of our Zulu
hunters. Although I could not lift a rifle myself I managed to collect
these men round me and to direct their fire, which proved so
terrifying to the Pongos that after ten or a dozen of them had been
knocked over, they began to give back sullenly and were helped into
their canoes by those men who were left in charge of them.
Then at length at a signal they got out their paddles, and, still
shouting curses and defiance at us, rowed away till they became but
specks upon the bosom of the great lake and vanished.
Two of the canoes we captured, however, and with them six or seven
Pongos.
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