Rionga was a general favourite, and the natives were sincerely glad to
see him at length supported by the government. Throughout his life he
had striven bravely against every species of treachery and persecution;
the day of his revenge had arrived.
I did not wish to overrun Unyoro until the grass should be fit to burn;
this would not be until the end of November.
I therefore arranged that I would leave Abd-el-Kader with sixty-five men
in a powerful stockade that I had constructed on the edge of the river
in this spot, N. lat. 2 degrees 6' 17", to support Rionga, and to
organize the native forces, while I would take forty men (sniders) and
march to Fatiko, to inquire into all that had happened during my
absence. It would be necessary to form a corps of irregulars under the
command of Wat-el-Mek, which I should immediately send to occupy Unyoro.
Rionga told me that he should attack M'rooli in company with the Langgos
and Umiros, who would quickly overrun the country now that Kabba Rega
was unsupported by the slave-hunters.
He at once collected fifty natives to carry our loads to Fatiko.
On 27th July, having left all beads, &c., with Colonel Abd-el-Kader for
the purchase of provisions, we took a cordial leave of Rionga, and
started, in six canoes, at 12.30 P.M.; paddling down the stream, we
arrived at our deserted zareeba at 3.12 P.M. We found the camp quite
undisturbed; no one appeared to have entered it since we had left it
some days ago. The palm outrigger canoes were lying in the same spot,
secured to the rushes; and all that had belonged to us was rigidly
respected.
Rionga had given us a sheep to eat during our march of seventy-nine
miles from Foweera to Fatiko. This did not seem very generous, but his
cattle had been mostly carried off by the slave-hunters under Suleiman.
Fortunately, just as we entered our old station, I shot a guinea-fowl,
which made a good curry, and saved our store of dried fish for the
uninhabited wilderness before us.
The best fish (as I before mentioned in "The Albert N'yanza") is the
Lepidosiren annectens, and this fat and delicate meat is excellent when
smoked and dried.
We slept in our old camp, and early on the following morning we prepared
to cross the river.
Rionga's people did not quite trust the inhabitants on the other side; I
accordingly sent a strong party of rifles across first to occupy the
high rocky landing-place.
On the return of the canoes, we were just preparing to cross with the
remainder of the party, when I observed eight natives walking very fast
along the forest-covered cliff on the other side. We immediately gave
the alarm to our men who occupied the rocks. The telescope now
discovered that the arrangement of the hair of these natives was the
fashion of Shooli and Fatiko.
The eight strangers, who had not before observed us, now halted in
astonishment, and presently they shouted in good Arabic -
"Are you the Pacha's soldiers? We are sent by Abdullah to look for the
Pacha!"
This was great good fortune; then Abdullah was alive, and I hoped my
detachment was all right!
We crossed the broad river, and upon close arrival, we discovered that
two of the messengers were well known to us, one of whom was Iarro, the
interpreter of the great sheik, Rot Jarma.
The first gleam of pleasure with which I had welcomed these messengers
quickly changed to considerable anxiety.
I was now informed that the attempt to destroy us by poison, and
subsequently by a treacherous attack at Masindi, was mainly due to the
intrigues of Abou Saood, who had originally advised Kabba Rega to resist
me should I arrive in his country. This traitor Abou Saood had
considered that we should be certainly massacred when once in the heart
of Unyoro. He had therefore assumed a despotic command of Fatiko and all
the neighbouring countries shortly after my departure; and he had given
orders ` to the natives and to the sheik, Rot Jarma, that "no supplies
of corn should be provided for Major Abdullah's troops."
Rot Jarma had been faithful to the government, and his people had
carried corn to Major Abdullah. Abou Saood had therefore ordered his men
to attack Rot Jarma. They had accordingly surprised him while believing
in the protection of the government, and had captured his cattle,
together with a number of slaves. In that attack the brigands had lost
five men, whose guns had been subsequently taken to Kabba Rega for sale
by the natives we had seen at Masindi.
Abou Saood then, enraged at the loss of five men, together with their
guns, had sent for Wat-el-Mek from Faloro, and had given him the command
above the well-known Ali Hussein, with orders to carry fire and sword
through the country.
Major Abdullah had vainly expostulated. Abou Saood had personally
threatened him; and Ali Hussein and an officer named Lazim, with some
others, had gone armed into the government camp, and had actually seized
natives who had taken refuge with Abdullah, from whose house they were
thus dragged by force in defiance of authority.
When the news arrived from Foweera that I had punished Suleiman for the
murder of the prisoner, both Abou Saood and his people had declared,
that they "would secure Major Abdullah in a forked pole, or sheba, and
treat hiin in a similar manner." They had also threatened to attack the
government camp.
Major Abdullah had written to me at Masindi requesting instructions; he
had intrusted the letter to a native of Faieera.
