The women chanted a savage kind of song; the men performed daring feats of horsemanship, and young men and girls danced between the camels. In this manner they circled their tents and our encampment. Then the camel carrying the bride was driven seven times around a tent that had been assigned to her. The animal was then made to kneel, the door of the canopy was opened, and the bride was pitched headfirst into the tent, where her women companions were reciting a benediction.
We were told that presents were expected. We gave a little money to an old Arab woman who had taken the leading part in the celebration, supposing her to be the mother of the bride. The general also invited an Arab of about fifty-five years to his tent to receive an extra present of provisions. Upon questioning the Arab as to the ages of the bride and groom, we learned that he himself was the groom; that the bride was a girl of thirteen years; and that the woman we had supposed to be her mother was another wife of the groom.
THE ALLIES QUARREL
Now arose a crisis that threatened more than any of the previous ones the success of our movement. Indeed, even the lives of all of the Christian members of the expedition were at stake. When we had reached a spot about ninety miles from Bomba, we found ourselves facing a famine. We had only six days' rations of rice, no bread nor meat, nor other ration. General Eaton was therefore anxious that we move forward to Bomba as swiftly as possible, but Hamet, while the general was out of camp, ordered the expedition to halt and announced that the troops needed a day's rest. The reason for his act, we learned, was that he might send a courier to see if our ships were indeed awaiting us at Bomba.
The general stopped the rations when he found that his army had halted, and Hamet, influenced by his Arab hosts, prepared again to march in a direction away from Derne. The Arabs tried to seize the weapons of the Christians, and General Eaton promptly called us to arms. We stood in a row before the magazine tent, guarding our guns from those who would use them to slaughter us. When the crowd had fallen back, the general ordered us to proceed with our daily drill. Seeing this, an Arab chief shouted:
"The Christians are preparing to fire on us!"
Hamet put himself at their head, with drawn sword, as if he feared that such was our intention.
General Eaton stood firmly facing the threatening host of Turks and Arabs. Around him clustered a little group: O'Bannon, Peck, Farquhar, Leitensdorfer, Selem Aga, the Greek officers, and myself. I tried my best to keep the gun in my hand from shivering, but the more I tried the more my hand trembled. Two hundred mounted Turks and Arabs advanced in full charge against us. The end was in sight. We leveled our muskets. I thought of Alexander and the Rector and said a prayer.
"Do not shoot until all hope of peace is gone—then sell your lives dearly!" General Eaton said.
The charging Arabs swerved and withdrew, but when we began to breathe more freely, they came closer, and this time we could see them selecting us as their targets. It did not seem that any of us Christians could survive five minutes longer. An Arab youth snapped a pistol at my breast. Providentially it missed fire. If one bullet had been fired, war to the death between the two sides would have resulted. A moment later we heard the command of "fire!" ring out from among the Arabs.