In the evening Shooli returned, but without the prisoner. Before he gave
his report, he begged me "not to be angry." He then described that he
had tracked Lazim's footsteps for a long way along the Fabbo road until
he had at length met several natives, who were coming towards him. These
men declared that they had met Lazim, who had managed to get rid of his
irons; but as he was unarmed, they knew that he must have run away. They
accordingly asked him for his pass from me, as it was well known that I
never allowed a man to go alone without a written order.
Lazim of course was unable to produce a paper. The natives, therefore,
insisted upon his returning with them to Fatiko, and upon his
remonstrating they seized him. A struggle ensued, and they at length
knocked him upon the head with au iron mace and killed him. Thus ended
one of the greatest scoundrels, and the government was relieved by his
escape from custody, which had so quickly terminated his career.
CHAPTER XXV.
I SEND TO GONDOKORO FOR REINFORCEMENTS.
On 25th November, 1872, I started Wat-el-Mek to Gondokoro with a force
of irregulars, in addition to a captain and twenty regular troops in
charge of the post. His party consisted of 100 men.
The fleet from Gondokoro had left on the 3rd of November, 1871: thus it
was natural to suppose that reinforcements had arrived from Khartoum,
according to my written instructions on that date. I now wrote to Raouf
Bey at head-quarters, to send up 200 men under the command of
Lieutenant-Colonel Tayib Agha, of the Soudani regiment. I also wrote for
a supply of cattle, as my stock had dwindled to a small herd of milch
cows, and the people at Fabbe had no meat except the flesh of any game
that might be killed.
A short time after the departure of Wat-el-Mek and his party for
Gondokoro, Suleiman the vakeel arrived from Fabbo with the intelligence
that a large body of Abou Saood's slave-hunters, including 3,000
Makkarika cannibals, had arrived on the Nile from the far west, with the
intention of taking the ivory from Fabbo!
It appeared that Abou Saood had gone from Gondokoro to his station at
the Bohr, upon the White Nile; from thence he had sent a party with a
letter to Atroosh, the vakeel of the Makkarika station, about 200 miles
distant, with orders that he should send a powerful force, with
sufficient carriers, to take the ivory by violence from Fabbo.
Abou Saood had not expected that the people whom he had left at that
station would have enlisted under the government standard. Thus he
imagined they would at once fraternize with the invading force.
The natives of the country were thoroughly alarmed, as the cannibals
were eating the children of the Koshi country on the west bank of the
Nile, in about 3 degrees latitude; and should they cross the river, the
Madis and Shoolis expected the same fate.
I ordered Suleiman (who had received a letter from Atroosh) to take a
letter from me to Ali Emmeen, the vakeel of the invading force,
instructing him to present himself before me at Fatiko instantly with an
escort of his own people, limited to twenty-five men. At the same time I
gave instructions to the natives upon no account to furnish boats for a
larger party.
After some days' absence Suleiman returned, but without Ali Emmeen, who
was afraid to appear. This vakeel had received my verbal assurance from
Suleiman that, should any persons attempt the passage of the river
without my permission, they would be instantly shot; at the same time,
if he wished to convey the ivory to Gondokoro by the usual route, he
could do so with an escort of regulars.
This was an awkward position for Ali Emmeen, who had expected to find
allies at Fabbo, but who now found a faithful corps of irregulars with
Suleiman at their head acting under my orders.
He accordingly took 100 men and returned about 180 miles to the camp of
Atroosh for fresh instructions. The 3,000 Makkarika cannibals were left
with the remainder of his company on the west bank of the Nile to feed
upon the natives of Koshi until his return.
Every day people arrived at Fatiko with horrible reports of the
cannibals, who were devouring the children in the Koshi district. Spies
went across the river and brought me every intelligence. It appeared
that the 3,000 Makkarikas had been engaged by Ali Emmeen under the
pretence that they were "to go to Fatiko and fight a chief called 'the
Pacha,' who had enormous flocks and herds, together with thousands of
beautiful women and other alluring spoil;" but they had not heard that
they were to carry 3,000 elephants' tusks to the station of Atroosh.
My spies now told them the truth. "Fight the Pacha!" they exclaimed:
"do you not know who he is? and that he could kill you all like fowls,
as he did the people of Ali Hussein? He has no cows for you to carry
off, but he has guns that are magic, and which load from behind instead
of at the muzzle!"
This was a terrible disappointment to the deluded Makkarikas, which at
once spread dissension among them, when they found that they had been
cajoled in order to transport the heavy loads of ivory.
A providential visitation suddenly fell upon them. The small-pox broke
out and killed upwards of 800 bloodthirsty cannibals who had been
devouring the country.
The Nile was reported to be about six miles in width opposite their
station, in about 3 degrees latitude, which is only a few miles from the
Albert N'yanza.
