Many of the men threw down their guns and seized sticks, and rushed to the rescue of their tall ringleader.

Saati was a little man, and was perfectly helpless.

Here was an escort! These were the men upon whom I was to depend in hours of difficulty and danger on an expedition into unknown regions! These were the fellows that I had considered to be reduced "from wolves to lambs"! I was determined not to be balked, but to insist upon the punishment of the ringleader.

I accordingly went toward him with the intention of seizing him; but he, being backed by upward of forty men, had the impertinence to attack me, rushing forward with a fury that was ridiculous.

To stop his blow and to knock him into the middle of the crowd was not difficult, and after a rapid repetition of the dose I disabled him, and seizing him by the throat I called to my vakeel Saati for a rope to bind him, but in an instant I had a crowd of men upon me to rescue their leader.
How the affair would have ended I cannot say; but as the scene lay within ten yards of my boat, my wife, who was ill with fever in the cabin, witnessed the whole affray, and seeing me surrounded, she rushed out, and in a few moments she was in the middle of the crowd, who at that time were endeavoring to rescue my prisoner.