This route through the forest led him to the
extreme end of the valley at the foot of the mountain, quite in the
wrong direction. Having arrived at the nearly dry bed of the Belinian
river, he sat beneath a tree to rest. The natives quickly observed him,
and stalked him as though he had been a wild animal.
It appeared that, when attacked, he had wounded one native in the head
with his "little gun," as the Baris termed his revolver; and this man
was still alive with the bullet in his skull, which the women declared
was swollen as large as a pumpkin.
Achmet Rafik was thus overpowered and killed, with the gain to the Baris
of his arms and ammunition.
I immediately started off with a company of troops, led by a Bari guide,
to the west end of the plain, where my officer had been killed. I had
not yet visited this spot, but the guilty natives were wide awake, and
they had concealed the arms, which I had hoped to recover. The forest
was tolerably open, and was full of small villages concealed by the
trees. I spread out my men and regularly drove the covert. Suddenly we
came upon a herd of cattle and a number of natives who had imagined
themselves secure in the depths of the forest.
I immediately dashed into them on horseback, accompanied by Lieutenant
Baker, Colonel Abd-el-Kader, and Monsoor, followed by the troops. The
cattle, seeing the red shirts of the "Forty Thieves," had gone off in a
regular stampede through the forest; this precipitate flight had been
quickened by the report of the rifles. It was difficult work to manage
the herd with only four horses. No one who has not hunted African, and
especially Bari cattle, can have an idea of the activity of these
animals. They go along at a tremendous pace, and never appear to get
blown: thus we were spurring hard through the forest in order to
overtake the herd, when to my great satisfaction we arrived at the broad
bed (nearly dry) of the Belinian river. This checked the pace, and we
reined up our horses, and quietly waited for the troops, who were
excellent runners.
A few men of "The Forty" were the first up, and we managed to drive the
cattle across the river on to the open plain. Hardly had we arrived on
the level ground, when they started off in another stampede, and kept us
going for about three miles, as though we were following hounds.
With a horse on each flank and in the rear of the herd we at length
managed to control their movements. Fortunately we had been running
towards our camp.
A herd of cattle generally depends upon a few of its members, which are
usually followed by the others. Upon this occasion there were two cows
that appeared to direct their movements. These wild creatures refused to
enter our cattle kraal upon arrival at the camp, when the troops, having
seen our approach, came out to render assistance. With skilful
management the herd was secured within the kraal, with the exception of
the two undisciplined cows, which started off at full speed along the
plain, followed by Abd-el-Kader and myself. A black and white cow was
exceedingly vicious, and being hard pressed for about a quarter of a
mile, she turned to bay on the open plain. I was riding my best horse,
named "The Pig," who was very powerful and fast, and understood
cattle-driving thoroughly. "The Pig," accordingly avoided the charge of
the infuriated cow, which dashed at him like a wild buffalo. I
immediately shot her in the shoulder with a revolver, which had no other
effect than to turn her towards Colonel Abd-el-Kader, who was riding a
large, clumsy chestnut called "Jamoos" (the buffalo). This horse
remained perfectly still when the cow rushed at him, and Abd-ed-Kader
instead of firing his rifle, received the charge full upon his left leg,
into which the cow drove her sharp horn, making a serious wound nearly
through the calf. I then shot the cow through the head, but Abd-el-Kader
was in great pain and quite disabled.
Upon counting our cattle we found 165. This was a very small herd, but
they had been difficult to capture.
Our new ally, old Jarda, with his diplomatic sister, came to visit us
upon hearing of our success, and immediately asked for a calf, which I
gave him.
Jarda's sister now informed me that the sheik of the mountain wished for
peace, and requested permission to visit me. On the following day he
appeared. He was a fine powerful fellow, but with a bad expression. I
had already heard that Jarda and he were not friends, therefore I looked
upon this introduction with suspicion.
After the usual declaration of friendship by the new sheik, and an
apology for past misdemeanours, presents were requested. A fat calf was
given - then a sheep was demanded; this was also supplied. We now came to
business. It appeared that the Belinian Baris had been called upon by
Allorron to become allies, at the same time that Loqiua had been invited
to join in the general attack that had been made upon Gondokoro.
Loquia had hesitated, but had at length joined Belinian, as the
government troops had been reported as great cowards who were afraid to
venture far from their head-quarters. The many thousand cattle known to
be at Gondokoro, and the fabulous amount of stores and material, at
length tempted the Loquia to join forces.
On the night of the attack, it now appeared that Loquia had lost many
men killed; others who were wounded dropped on the way, and died on the
route through Belinian.
