This home-guard was placed under command of the king in person. The hundred musketeers were placed under Peterkin’s command. The other fifty were given to me, along with a hundred spear and bow men. Jack himself took command of the main body of spearmen. As Peterkin had to act a special and independent part, besides commanding his hundred musketeers, Makarooroo was made over to him, to act as lieutenant.
All these arrangements and appointments were made in a cool, quiet, and arbitrary manner by Jack, to whom the natives, including the king, looked up with a species of awe amounting almost to veneration.
“Now,” said our commander-in-chief to Lieutenant Mak, “tell the niggers I am going to make them a speech,” (this was received with a grunt of satisfaction), “and that if they wish to have the smallest chance of overcoming their enemies, they had better give their closest attention to what I have to say.”
Another grunt of acquiescence followed this announcement.
“Say that I am going to speak to them of things so mysterious that they shall not by any conceivable or possible effort understand them.”
This being quite in accordance with the superstitions and tastes of the negroes, was received with eager acclamations of delight.
“Tell them,” continued Jack, in a deep, solemn tone, and frowning darkly, “that we shall gain the victory only through obedience. Each man must keep his ears open and his eye on his leader, and must obey orders at once. If the order ‘Halt’ should be given, and any man should have his mouth open at the time, he must keep his mouth open, and shut it after he has halted.”
Here Jack took occasion to revert to the three orders, “Forward,” “Halt,” and “Fire,” and repeated the lesson several times, until his men were quite perfect. Then he put the various bodies under their respective commanders, and telling the musketeers to make believe to fire (but making sure that they should not really do it, by taking their guns from them), he made each of us give the various words separately, so that our men should become familiar with our voices.
This done, he called the generals of divisions to him, and said—
“Now, gentlemen, I am going to review my troops, and to give them their final lesson in military tactics, with the double view of seeing that they know what they have got to do, and of impressing them with a due sense of the great advantage of even a slight knowledge of drill.”