"12. Coffee-berries [*] to be sown in nursery-beds, when received from
M'tese.
[*Footnote: I had written to him for a supply of coffee-seed.)
"13. The old huts to be cleared away and replaced by new, constructed in
lines similar to those in the south camp.
"14. No ivory to be purchased in exchange for cattle, but only in barter
for goods.
"15. NO SLAVES TO BE EITHER PURCHASED OR TAKEN.
"16. The bugle to sound 'Extinguish fires' at 8 p.m."
Having left everything in perfect order in the new central territory, I
was ready to start for Gondokoro on 20th March.
I had been two years and five months without any news or communication
with either Egypt or Europe when the post arrived with Wat-el-Mek. About
600 copies of the Times had arrived at once. We had been introduced to
the Tichborne case; and of course had, at the earliest stage of the
trial, concluded that the claimant was Arthur Orton. The news that is
almost stereotyped in English newspapers gave us the striking incidents
of civilization. Two or three wives had been brutally knocked about by
their husbands, who had received only a slight punishment. A prominent
divorce case; a few Irish agrarian outrages; a trial in the
ecclesiastical court of a refractory clergyman; the smash-up of a few
public companies, with the profitable immunity of the directors; a lady
burnt to death; a colliery explosion; several hundred railway accidents,
which induced me to prefer walking; the Communists had half destroyed
Paris; republican principles were fast spreading through England; the
Gladstone ministry would last for ever; some babies had been poisoned,
and the baby-farmer had been hanged; deceased wife's sisters were to
marry their disconsolate brothers; England was to pay a tribute to
America (for the freaks of the Alabama); drunkenness was on the
increase; ladies were to become our physicians; &c. I was almost afraid
to return home; but as I had some friends and relations that I wished to
see again, I left my little paradise, Fatiko, and marched for Gondokoro,
accompanied by my good natives, Shooli and Gimoro.
After the absurd conduct and the defeat of Tayib Agha at Moogi, I fully
expected to have to fight my way through; but upon arrival in that
district the natives knew me, and we were not molested. They even sent
me six cows which had been lost by Tayib Agha on the road during his
unlucky march.
I had taken under my especial protection a number of Bari women and
young girls whom Wat-el-Mek and Tayib Agha had pressed into their
service to carry loads during their journey from Gondokoro to Fatiko.
There can be no doubt that these poor creatures never would have been
returned to their country, had I not delivered them; but seeing their
condition upon their arrival at Fatiko, I had ordered them to accompany
me, and to show me the position of their homes during the march.
