This person
was a curious but useful character that I had always wished to employ,
as he had great power with the natives, and he knew every nook and
corner of the country.
I had known him during my former journey, and it appears that he had
always wished to serve me in the present expedition. The slave-traders
of Khartoum had been determined to prevent Wat-el-Mek from communicating
with me; thus, when I had arrived in Khartoum, this important personage
was actually there; but he was quickly sent by Abou Saood under some
frivolous pretext up the Blue Nile, to keep him out of the way.
On arrival at Gondokoro, he had studiously been retained on the west
bank of the river, and his name had been kept so secret, that I had
never heard it mentioned. Thus, although both at Khartoum and at
Gondokoro Wat-el-Mek had been within a few hundred paces of me, I had
always supposed that he was in Central Africa.
Abou Saood now declared that Wat-el-Mek had started many days ago from
Fatiko to Koshi; but I subsequently discovered that he had only left
Fatiko on the morning of my arrival, and that he was kept waiting at
Fabbo station, only twenty-two miles west of Fatiko, for several days,
while I had been told by Abou Saood that he had gone to Koshi.
