The girl spoke good Arabic,
and did not appear to show the slightest alarm.
I asked her why the Belinian Baris had attacked us, and taken cattle
from the station at Gondokoro, without the slightest provocation? She
replied that they had been invited by the sheik Allorron to become
allies, therefore they had attacked us and driven off the cows, some of
which were now among the cattle we had that morning captured.
I told her that we never took slaves, therefore she and her companions
might return to the Baris, and inform them that I had come upon the
tracks of the cattle which they had driven off from Gondokoro. If they
desired peace, I should be happy to treat with them, but if they should
return to attack us at head-quarters, I should not spare them, but I
would utterly root them out of the neighbourhood. The girls laughed and
started off, not in the least disturbed by the scene around them.
At length, Tayib Agha's detachment arrived. They were very angry with
Morgian, the guide, who, they declared, had purposely misled them. This
was not the fact; the man had lost his way in the dark in the endeavour
to seek a better path for the gun. However, we were now united, and I
ordered the men to breakfast.
The sniders had cleared the natives from the vicinity, and now that we
had been reinforced by Tayib Agha's party, there was no fear of the
Baris. They kept aloof, and merely watched our movements from the tops
of high trees, where they perched like cormorants, and saw the enjoyment
of the troops engaged in roasting beef that had lately been their own.
I fully expected a difficulty with the natives when we should attempt to
drive the herd of strange cattle through the jungle path to Gondokoro. I
therefore determined to make a reconnaissance of the neighbourhood when
the men should have finished their breakfast, in order to drive the
Baris from the vicinity, and thus obtain a fair start for the cattle.
Leaving one company to protect the stockade and captured cattle, I took
the remaining three companies and the gun, and extending the line in
open order, with skirmishers thrown out in front and the gun in the
centre, we advanced through the country.
A large river bed, now almost dry, with very abrupt banks, lay on our
left. The wood became thinner, and we suddenly emerged upon a broad,
open valley or plain, which was bounded on our right by the high
mountain of Belinian, about a mile and a half distant.
The plain was covered with villages, and the entire country was green
with cultivation, the dhurra being then about two feet high. The
gun-carriage ran easily over the flat ground, and we advanced rapidly
forward, the Baris clearing out of their villages and gathering on our
flanks as we approached.
