On 7th August, at about 5 P.M., Abou Saood appeared with about forty of
his men. He was afraid to enter my camp without a second assurance in
writing that he should not be made prisoner.
Of course he swore that he had not given orders to fire at me; and he
declared that his people of Fatiko had only fired because they were
afraid that the natives who had accompanied me were about to attack
them.
I asked him, "If that were the case, why had they not communicated with
me, as I was only ninety yards distant?" He said his people had not
fired at the government troops, but only at the natives who were upon
the rock.
He could not quite explain in that case "how it was that 1,000 natives
perched upon the rock close together, had escaped without a man being
wounded, while not only were seven of the government troops knocked down
by bullets, but the huts and furniture of our camp, including boxes in
the magazine, &c, had been completely riddled with balls." He then began
to lay the blame on Wat-el-Mek, and even had the audacity to declare
that "he had nothing to do with slaves, but that he could not restrain
his people from kidnapping." I never heard any human being pour out such
a cataract of lies as this scoundrel.
