It Was In Vain That My Two Lads, Wat Gamma And
Bacheet, Assured Them That I Was An Englishman:
They had never
heard of such a country as England; in their opinion, a white man
must be a Turk.
Not contented with refusing all supplies, they
assembled in large numbers and commenced a quarrel with my men,
several of whom were Tokrooris that I had hired to accompany us
to Khartoum. These men, being newly engaged and entirely strange,
were of little service; but, having joined in the quarrel like
true Tokrooris, who are always ready for a row, the altercation
grew so hot that it became rather serious. The natives determined
that we should not remain in their village, and, having expressed
a threat to turn us out, they assembled around us in a large
crowd with their lances and trombashes. My wife was sitting by me
upon an angarep, when the people closed around my men, and one
very tall specimen of a Tokroori came forward, and, snatching a
knife from its sheath that was worn upon the arm of my servant,
he challenged him to fight. As Tokrooris are always more or less
under the influence of drink, their fights are generally the
effect of some sudden impulse. It was necessary to do something,
as the crowd were determined upon a row; this was now commenced
by their leader, who was eyeing me from head to foot with the
most determined insolence, holding the knife in his hand that he
had taken from my man. I therefore rose quietly from my seat,
and, approaching him to within a convenient distance for
striking, if necessary, I begged him very politely to leave my
people to themselves, as we should depart on the following
morning. He replied with great impertinence, and insisted upon
fighting one or all of our party. I accommodated him without a
moment's delay, as, stepping half a pace backwards, I came in
with a left and right as fast as a rapid double-hit could be
delivered, with both blows upon his impudent mouth. In an instant
he was on his back, with his heels in the air; and, as I prepared
to operate upon his backer, or upon any bystander who might have
a penchant for fighting, the crowd gave way, and immediately
devoted themselves to their companion, who lay upon the ground in
stupid astonishment, with his fingers down his throat searching
for a tooth; his eyes were fixed upon my hands to discover the
weapon with which he had been wounded. His friends began to wipe
the blood from his face and clothes, and at this juncture the
sheik of the village appeared for the first time.
To my astonishment he was extremely civil; a sudden reaction had
taken place, the Tokrooris had had their row, and were apparently
satisfied. The sheik begged me not to kill his people by hitting
them, "as they were mere chickens, who would at once die if I
were to strike them with my fist." I begged him to keep his
"chickens" in better order, and at once to order them away from
our immediate neighbourhood. In a few minutes the sheik drove the
crowd away, who picked up their man and led him off. The sheik
then begged us to accept a hut for the night, and he paid us
every attention.
On the following morning, we left shortly after sunrise; the
natives very civilly assisted to load our camels, and among the
most active was my fighting friend of yesterday, who, with his
nose and mouth all swollen into one, had been rapidly converted
from a well-featured Tokroori into a real thick-lipped,
flat-nosed African nigger, with prognathous jaw, that would have
delighted the Ethnological Society.
"April 29.--It rained hard during the night. Our course was due
west, along the banks of a hor, from which the natives procure
water by sinking wells about twelve feet deep in the sandy bed,
which is dry in the hot season. Throughout this country the water
is bad. At 11 A.M. we reached Roumele; this is the last village
between Gallabat and the river Rahad. The natives say that there
is no water on the road, and their accounts of the distance are
so vague and contradictory that I cannot rely upon the
information.
"I could procure only one water-skin, and none of my old stock
were serviceable; I therefore arranged to water all the animals,
and push on throughout the night, by which plan I hoped to arrive
by a forced march at the Rahad on the following morning, without
exhausting both men and beasts by a long journey through an
unknown distance in the heat of the sun. Hardly were the horses
watered at a well in the dry bed of the stream, when Aggahr was
taken ill with inflammation. I left two men to attend upon him,
with orders to bring him on if better on the following day: we
started on our journey, but we had not proceeded a quarter of a
mile when Gazelle, that I was riding, was also seized with
illness, and fell down; with the greatest difficulty I led the
horse back again to the village. My good old hunter Aggahr died
in great agony a few minutes after our return, and Gazelle died
during the night; the natives declared this to be the horse
sickness that was annually prevalent at this season. The disease
appeared to be inflammation of the bowels, which I attributed to
the sudden change of food; for months past they had lived
principally upon dry grass, but within the past few days they had
greedily eaten the young herbage that had appeared after a few
showers; with this, may have been poisonous plants that they had
swallowed unawares. We had now only one horse, Tetel, that was
ridden by my wife; I therefore determined to start on foot on the
following morning, and to set the pace at four miles an hour, so
as to reach the Rahad by a forced march in one rapid stretch, and
thus to eke out our scanty supply of water.
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