I gave orders directly
that no man should sleep in the town, but that all should be at their
posts by the luggage under the tree that I occupied. At night several
men were absent, and were with difficulty brought from the town by the
vakeel. The whole of the night was passed by the rival parties
quarrelling and fighting. At 5.30 on the following morning the drum of
Ibrahim's party beat the call, and his men with great alacrity got their
porters together and prepared to march. My vakeel was not to be found;
my men were lying idly in the positions where they had slept, and not a
man obeyed when I gave the order to prepare to start- except Richarn and
Sali. I saw that the moment had arrived. Again I gave the order to the
men to get up and load the animals. Not a man would move except three or
four, who slowly rose from the ground and stood resting on their guns.
In the mean time Richarn and Sali were bringing the camels and making
them kneel by the luggage. The boy Saat was evidently expecting a row,
and although engaged with the black women in packing, he kept his eyes
constantly on me.
I now observed that Bellaal was standing very near me on my right, in
advance of the men who had risen from the ground, and employed himself
in eying me from head to foot with the most determined insolence. The
fellow had his gun in his hand, and he was telegraphing by looks with
those who were standing near him, while not one of the others rose from
the ground, although close to me. Pretending not to notice Bellaal, who
was now, as I had expected, once more the ringleader, for the third time
I ordered the men to rise immediately and to load the camels. Not a man
moved; but the fellow Bellaal marched up to me, and looking me straight
in the face dashed the butt-end of his gun in defiance on the ground and
led the mutiny. "Not a man shall go with you! Go where you like with
Ibrahim, but we won't follow you nor move a step farther. The men shall
not load the camels; you may employ the 'niggers' to do it, but not us."
I looked at this mutinous rascal for a moment. This was the outburst of
the conspiracy, and the threats and insolence that I had been forced to
pass over for the sake of the expedition all rushed before me. "Lay down
your gun!" I thundered, "and load the camels!" "I won't," was his reply.
"Then stop here!" I answered, at the same time lashing out as quick as
lightning with my right hand upon his jaw.
He rolled over in a heap, his gun flying some yards from his hand, and
the late ringleader lay apparently insensible among the luggage, while
several of his friends ran to him and played the part of the Good
Samaritan. Following up on the moment the advantage I had gained by
establishing a panic, I seized my rifle and rushed into the midst of the
wavering men, catching first one by the throat and then another, and
dragging them to the camels, which I insisted upon their immediately
loading. All except three, who attended to the ruined ringleader,
mechanically obeyed. Richarn and Sali both shouted to them to "hurry";
and the vakeel arriving at this moment and seeing how matters stood,
himself assisted, and urged the men to obey.
Ibrahim's party had started. The animals were soon loaded, and leaving
the vakeel to take them in charge, we cantered on to overtake Ibrahim,
having crushed the mutiny and given such an example that, in the event
of future conspiracies, my men would find it difficult to obtain a
ringleader. So ended the famous conspiracy that had been reported to me
by both Saat and Richarn before we left Gondokoro; and so much for the
threat of firing simultaneously at me and deserting my wife in the
jungle. In those savage countries success frequently depends upon one
particular moment; you may lose or win according to your action at that
critical instant. We congratulated ourselves upon the termination of
this affair, which I trusted would be the last of the mutinies.
Upon our arrival at a large town called Kattaga, my vakeel reported the
desertion of five of my men to Mahommed Her's party, with their guns and
ammunition. I abused both the vakeel and the men most thoroughly, and
declared, "As for the mutineers who have joined the slave- hunters,
Inshallah, the vultures shall pick their bones!"
This charitable wish - which, I believe, I expressed with intense hatred
- was never forgotten either by my own men or by the Turks. Believing
firmly in the evil eye, their superstitious fears were immediately
excited.
I had noticed during the march from Latome that the vicinity of every
town was announced by heaps of human remains. Bones and skulls formed a
Golgotha within a quarter of a mile of every village. Some of these were
in earthenware pots, generally broken; others lay strewn here and there,
while a heap in the centre showed that some form had originally been
observed in their disposition. This was explained by an extraordinary
custom, most rigidly observed by the Latookas. Should a man be killed in
battle the body is allowed to remain where it fell, and is devoured by
the vultures and hyenas; but should he die a natural death he is buried
in a shallow grave within a few feet of his own door, in the little
courtyard that surrounds each dwelling. Funeral dances are then kept up
in memory of the dead for several weeks, at the expiration of which time
the body, being sufficiently decomposed, is exhumed.
