We spent a miserable night, as the baggage and provision porters were unable to find their way into the camp in the dark. From information volunteered by some prisoners the next day, it appeared that Sefu had been somewhat perturbed; one of his favourite wives had been killed by a stray shot fired during Michaux's skirmish on the river bank, while sitting in his tent with him a mile away from the scene of combat. Shortly after Michaux had retired, a messenger confirmed what our allies had already told them — namely, that Mohara was killed and his forces dispersed. The hill on which the Arabs had made their camp, and which we now occupied, rose abruptly out of the plain, and formed a plateau about a mile and a half square, surrounded on every side by nearly perpendicular grassy slopes.

No better position for defence