Numerous sheiks had collected to receive us, and a formal complaint and
protest was made against Abou Saood and his people.
An attack had been planned by the slavers, and Abdullah and his small
detachment of 100 men would be overpowered. They were already
disheartened, as they believed that we were dead, and they had been
daily taunted with this fact by the brigands, who asked them, "what they
were going to do now that the Pacha was killed."
Abou Saood, having given his orders to Wat-el-Mek, and to the ruffian
Ali Hussein, had withdrawn to the station of Fabbo, twenty-two miles
west of Fatiko, to which place he had carried all the ivory. He was not
fond of fighting, PERSONALLY.
The natives corroborated the information I had received from Rot Jarma's
messengers. They declared that not only had women and children been
carried off, but that the slave-hunters under Ali Hussein had cut the
throats of many of their women before their eyes, and had dashed the
brains of the young children upon the rocks in derision of my power;
saying, "Now see if the Nuzzerani (Christian) can protect you!"
They declared that Wat-el-Mek really wished to join the government, but
that when he got drunk, both Abou Saood and others could induce him to
behave badly.
There were several hundred people present at this meeting; and the
sheiks wound up in a cool and temperate manner, by advising me "not to
judge from what they had told me, but simply to march early on the
following morning to Fatiko, and to receive the report direct from my
own commandant, Major Abdullah.
"If he contradicts us, you may say that we are liars; then never believe
us again."
This was the conclusion of the palaver.
The morning of 2nd August arrived, and we started at 6.20 A.M., and
marched fast over a beautiful country of dells, woods, and open
park-like lands, until we ascended the hill that rose towards the high
plateau at Fatiko.
As we passed the numerous villages we were joined by curious bands of
natives, who by degrees swelled our party to nearly a thousand persons.
There was no doubt that these people expected to witness a row, as they
knew that Abdullah had been threatened. It was therefore highly probable
that we might be attacked, as the slave-hunters would imagine that my
small force of forty men was the last remnant of my detachment.
No one at Fatiko had an idea of my existence: thus we should arrive as
though risen from the dead.
I halted the men on a large flat rock about a mile and a half south of
Fatiko.
