The Baris Were Excellent Diplomatists, And, Seeing That We Were Too
Powerful To Resist By Open Force, They Sent Women To Treat For Peace.
This Was Simply A Manoeuvre To Gain Time, As During The Truce They Could
Carry Off The Corn By Day As Well As Night.
I always leant towards
peace, although the war had been wantonly forced upon me; thus we soon
established friendly relations with an old sheik named Jarda, about two
miles from the Belinian mountain.
This old fellow had an exceedingly
clever sister who would have made a good foreign minister. She explained
just as much of the Belinian politics as would suit her purpose, and
very properly declared that the women were all in favour of the
government, and they would use their influence with the men, some of
whom she asserted had very "hard heads."
Old Jarda, who was about eighty and had sufficient worldly experience to
appreciate the value of a good counsellor, left the diplomatic
arrangements to his sister, who became extremely active, and ran about
the country to collect the principal headmen.
We had many palavers, which as usual ended in nothing but assurances of
goodwill, and an explanation that the attacks on Gondokoro were made by
certain districts, but that Jarda's people were not responsible. In the
mean time thousands of women and children were engaged in carrying off
the corn. The country seemed alive with baskets, as these useful
articles were seen gliding about in all directions on the heads of
natives that were invisible in the high grass.
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