In a short time, Major Abdullah and his gallant company had landed and
formed in line.
His excuse for the precipitate retreat which he had commenced at
daybreak was, that he feared a renewed attack, and he was short of
ammunition. He had therefore determined to fall back on the station
occupied by Lieutenant-Colonel Achmet.
He appeared to have forgotten that he could have communicated with me by
bugle.
I inspected the men's pouches, and found that most of them had eighteen
or twenty rounds of cartridge, while the minimum contained eleven
rounds; this is what the major considered a short supply of ammunition
for a march of a mile and a half along beautiful open country to my
vessels.
He described the overwhelming number of the natives, and their extreme
bravery in the attack, which his troops had repelled without any loss to
themselves either killed or wounded. At the same time the troops under
his command had killed twenty Baris, whose bodies he had himself
counted.
I now ordered them to advance to the village, as I wished to examine the
position. Upon arrival at the spot where the battle had taken place,
there were a number of vultures settled in various spots where the
ground was marked with blood, and the cleanly-picked skeleton of a man,
lying close to the euphorbia hedge, showed that the Baris had really
come to close quarters. (The officer declared that twenty of the enemy
were slain, while the soldiers admitted that only five were killed.
There was always a gross exaggeration in the reports.)
The natives had carried off their dead, with the exception of the body
that had been cleaned by the vultures; this must have been a stranger
who had no friends, as the Baris are very particular in the interment of
their people.
I now marched my men along the high ground towards the south, and
examined the numerous habitations, until I arrived at a little colony
comprising six villages, all of which were full of corn. Here I left
Major Abdullah and his detachment, with orders to collect all the dhurra
from the neighbouring villages, and to form a central depot at his
present station, after which, the corn could be thrashed out and carried
to the vessels. I stationed a noggur by the bank exactly opposite his
position, about half a mile distant.
The natives had abandoned the neighbourhood: and hundreds of villages
remained without an inhabitant.
On 3rd November, I sent off vessels heavily laden with corn to
Gondokoro, under the command of Lieutenant Baker, with instructions that
the detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Achmet should join me as soon as
possible, and that empty vessels should at once be sent to my corn
depot.
