I Wrote To Sir R. Colquhoun, H.M.
Consul-General For Egypt, Which Letter I Sent By One Of The
Return
boats, and I explained to my vakeel that the complaint to the British
authorities would end in his imprisonment,
And that in case of my death
through violence he would assuredly be hanged. After frightening him
thoroughly, I suggested that he should induce some of the mutineers, who
were Dongolowas (his own tribe), many of whom were his relatives, to
accompany me, in which case I would forgive them their past misconduct.
In the course of the afternoon he returned with the news that he had
arranged with seventeen of the men, but that they refused to march
toward the south, and would accompany me to the east if I wished to
explore that part of the country. Their plea for refusing a southern
route was the hostility of the Bari tribe. They also proposed a
condition, that I should "LEAVE ALL MY TRANSPORT ANIMALS AND BAGGAGE
BEHIND ME." To this insane request, which completely nullified their
offer to start, I only replied by vowing vengeance against the vakeel.
The time was passed by the men in vociferously quarrelling among
themselves during the day and in close conference with the vakeel during
the night, the substance of which was reported on the following morning
by the faithful Saat. The boy recounted their plot. They agreed to march
to the east, with the intention of deserting me at the station of a
trader named Chenooda, seven days' march from Gondokoro, in the Latooka
country, whose men were, like themselves, Dongolowas; they had conspired
to mutiny at that place and to desert to the slave-hunting party with my
arms and ammunition, and to shoot me should I attempt to disarm them.
They also threatened to shoot my vakeel, who now, through fear of
punishment at Khartoum, exerted his influence to induce them to start.
Altogether it was a pleasant state of things.
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