The passing of the Shereefian empire . mighthave captured it straight away and inflicted heavylosses on the enemy, for the cavalry were insufiicient force and had plenty of time to getround his rear and cut off his retreat. But prob-ably, owing to his instructions, Colonel SantaColoma displayed no initiative or appreciation ofthe very happy tactical position in which he wasplaced. At this point in the engagement a Moorwith a Mauser rifle very nearly got me, for I wasstanding holding my horse in front of the cavalrywhen he suddenly opened fire from a roof of a housein the village only 200 yards
The passing of the Shereefian empire . mighthave captured it straight away and inflicted heavylosses on the enemy, for the cavalry were insufiicient force and had plenty of time to getround his rear and cut off his retreat. But prob-ably, owing to his instructions, Colonel SantaColoma displayed no initiative or appreciation ofthe very happy tactical position in which he wasplaced. At this point in the engagement a Moorwith a Mauser rifle very nearly got me, for I wasstanding holding my horse in front of the cavalrywhen he suddenly opened fire from a roof of a housein the village only 200 yards away. Attractedby my white horse, he fired five shots in rapidsuccession, all of which missed me, but not thecavalry behind. One bullet caught an unfortunatetrooper in the ankle, another passed through ahorses leg, and a third went through a soldierscoat without touching him. This caused thecavalry to retire to the rear, and their place wastaken by a company of the Leon Kegiment, whoadvanced towards the village beautifully extended,. CAPTURE OF THE VILLAGE. 421 and with admirable coolness and precision. Butthey were not allowed to go far before they werehalted, and the whole advance w^as delayed forover an hour. This was a great mistake, and theenemy took advantage of it; for according totheir invariable custom, their mounted men roderight round our flank and rear, so that we werefighting on three sides at the same time. Butthe enemy were not in sufficient force to makethese attacks any more than a mere demonstra-tion, and they might well have been , while our attack hung fire, the gunsand incessant rifle - fire of the other column, ledin person by General Aguilera, showed that theywere busily engaged in attacking the enemy overthe broken ground from the north - west. TheMoors, although few in numbers, made a splen-did sustained resistance from behind rocks, en-trenchments, houses, and the thick cover of theprickly pear. While they were holding Aguilerascolumn
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