This was an admirable machine, and was
well explained by Lieutenant Baker. No one had ever seen such an
exhibition before, therefore it caused immense satisfaction. One of the
representations that was most applauded, was, Moses going through the
Red Sea with the Israelites, followed by Pharaoh. The story being well
known to all Mohammedans, the performance was encored with such energy
that Moses had to go through the Red Sea twice, and they would have
insisted upon his crossing a third time, had the slide not been rapidly
exchanged for another subject.
The formal ceremony of annexation was over, and it was necessary to
decide upon the future.
I had issued the following Camp Regulations: -
1. "No person shall cut or in other ways destroy any tamarind or oil
tree under any pretext whatever. Neither shall any tree whatsoever be
either cut or damaged within a distance of 2,000 paces from the
flag-staff or camp.
2. "No person shall stray beyond 2,000 paces of the flag-staff or camp
without permission either from the Pacha or Raouf Bey.
3. "No person shall trade in ivory, neither shall any person accept
ivory as a present or in exchange; neither shall any person shoot, or
cause to be shot, elephants: all ivory being the property and monopoly
of the government of His Highness the Khedive of Egypt.
4. "No person shall either purchase or receive slaves as presents or in
exchange.
"Any person transgressing by disobedience of the above laws will be
punished as the will of Baker Pacha may direct. "S. W. BAKER."
My men were hard at work erecting magazines and building the station,
and had I not issued the above regulations, they would have cut down
every ornamental tree in the neighbourhood. Although the mission-house
had disappeared, the foundations remained; I dug them up and procured
sufficient sound bricks to build a powder-magazine, which I covered with
a galvanized iron roof and protected my ammunition.
Several of the Egyptian soldiers deserted. These people, who were for
the most part convicts, although professing Islamism preferred to live
with the natives, to the steady discipline of military life.
One evening, the sentry, on guard before the house of Lieutenant Baker
and Mr. Higginbotham, was observed by Mr. Baker's soldier servant (a
black) to lay his rifle on the ground and to enter stealthily the
doorway of his hut. Abdullah Maseri, the servant, lost no time in
running towards the hut, which he quietly entered in the dusk, without
being perceived by the thief within, who in the absence of Mr. Baker was
pillaging his boxes.
Abdullah quietly crept up behind him, pinned him by the back of the
neck, and held him until he obtained assistance. There was no escape
from conviction, therefore I sentenced the thief to receive 100 lashes
and to be, confined in irons.
While he was undergoing the punishment he yelled for mercy, saying, "I
will confess-I will confess all. It was I who entered the Pacha's room
at Tewfikeeyah. It was at me that the Pacha fired the pistol! Put me in
irons, but don't flog me; I will confess all."
This man was an Egyptian belonging to the "Forty Thieves," and he now
confessed his former delinquency. He was secured in irons and placed
under a guard. The fellow had been a professional thief, and during the
night he managed to slip off his irons and make his escape, no doubt
with the connivance of the sentry.
The fact of the natives receiving the deserters was enough to suggest
the suspicion that they were tampering with the troops. Although the
Baris would neither work nor assist in any manner, they continued, in
spite of my warning, to swim their cattle across to the pasturage on the
mainland occupied by the troops.
I again gave the sheik Allorron notice, that if he continued to drive
his cattle to the forbidden pasture, they would be confiscated.
On the following morning they returned to the mainland as usual, not the
slightest notice having been taken of my repeated and official warning.
I gave orders to secure them. About ten men of the "Forty Thieves"
quietly explained the order to the natives who guarded the cattle, and
without any remonstrance they drove them to my station, and stood guard
around the herd.
The natives returned to the island, and reported the affair to the sheik
Allorron and his people.
Early on the following morning, the sheik, accompanied by fifteen
headmen of villages and a number of natives, together with Tomby the
interpreter, attended and formed a deputation. I received them beneath
the shady tree near my diahbeeah. They looked very sheepish, and asked
me, "Why had I confiscated their cattle?"
I explained the reason: and they at length acknowledged that they had no
positive right of pasturage, as they had been driven from their country
by the Loquia, and were it not for my presence they could not venture to
drive their cattle to the mainland. At the same time they explained,
that the extreme dryness of the season had exhausted the grass upon the
island after the close grazing of the large herds; thus they had
imagined I should not have any real objection to their pasturing upon
the east banks, which, as I had no cattle, would otherwise be neglected.
I explained that the government must be obeyed, and that, as they had
disobeyed every order, I should take charge of their cattle (about 200)
until they showed a disposition to accept the Khedive's authority. At
the same time, if the natives would bring thatch grass and assist the
troops in forming the station (a work which they had always performed
annually for Abou Saood's people), I would return them their cattle.
