The Porters Were All Engaged To Transport The Ivory, But I Observed That
The Greater Number Were In Mourning For Either Lost Friends Or Cattle,
Having Ropes Twisted Round Their Necks And Waists, As Marks Of Sorrow.
About 800 men received payment of cattle in advance; the next day they
had all absconded with their cows,
Having departed during the night.
This was a planned affair to "spoil the Egyptians:" a combination had
been entered into some months before by the Madi and Shooa tribes, to
receive payment and to abscond, but to leave the Turks helpless to
remove their stock of ivory. The people of Mahommed Wat-el-Mek were in a
similar dilemma; not a tusk could be delivered at Gondokoro.
This was not my affair. The greater portion of Ibrahim's immense store
of ivory had been given to him by Kamrasi; I had guaranteed him a
hundred cantars (10,000 lbs.) should he quit Obbo and proceed to the
unknown south; in addition to a large quantity that he had collected and
delivered at Gondokoro in the past year, he had now more than three
times that amount. Although Kamrasi had on many occasions offered the
ivory to me, I had studiously avoided the acceptance of a single tusk,
as I wished the Turks to believe that I would not mix myself up with
trade in any form, and that my expedition had purely the one object that
I had explained to Ibrahim when I first won him over on the road to
Ellyria more than two years ago, "the discovery of the Albert lake."
With a certain number of presents of first class forty-guinea rifles and
guns, &c. &c., to Ibrahim, I declared my intention of starting for
Gondokoro. My trifling articles of baggage were packed: a few of the
Lira natives were to act as porters, as, although the ivory could not be
transported, it was necessary for Ibrahim to send a strong party to
Gondokoro to procure ammunition and the usual supplies forwarded
annually from Khartoum; the Lira people who carried my luggage would act
as return porters.
The day arrived for our departure; the oxen were saddled and we were
ready to start. Crowds of people came to say "goodbye," but, dispensing
with the hand-kissing of the Turks who were to remain in camp, we
prepared for our journey towards HOME. Far away although it was, every
step would bring us nearer. Nevertheless there were ties even in this
wild spot, where all was savage and unfeeling - ties that were painful
to sever, and that caused a sincere regret to both of us when we saw our
little flock of unfortunate slave children crying at the idea of
separation. In this moral desert, where all humanized feelings were
withered and parched like the sands of the Soudan, the guilelessness of
the children had been welcomed like springs of water, as the only
refreshing feature in a land of sin and darkness. "Where are you going?"
cried poor little Abbai in the broken Arabic that we had taught him.
"Take me with you, Sitty!" (lady), and he followed us down the path, as
we regretfully left our proteges, with his fists tucked into his eyes,
weeping from his heart, although for his own mother he had not shed a
tear. We could not take him with us; - he belonged to Ibrahim; and had I
purchased the child to rescue him from his hard lot and to rear him as a
civilized being, I might have been charged with slave dealing. With
heavy hearts we saw him taken up in the arms of a woman and carried back
to camp, to prevent him from following our party, that had now started.
We had turned our backs fairly upon the south, and we now travelled for
several days through most beautiful park-like lands, crossing twice the
Un-y-Ame stream, that rises in the country between Shooa and Unyoro, and
arriving at the point of junction of this river with the Nile, in
latitude 3 degrees 32 minutes N. On the north bank of the Un-y-Ame,
about three miles from the embouchure of that river where it flows into
the Nile, the tamarind tree was shown me that forms the limit of Signor
Miani's journey from Gondokoro, the extreme point reached by any
traveller from the north until the date of my expedition. This tree bore
the name of "Shedder-el-Sowar" (the traveller's tree), by which it was
known to the traders' parties. Several of the men belonging to Ibrahim,
also Mahommed Wat-el-Mek, the vakeel of Debono's people, had accompanied
Signor Miani on his expedition to this spot. Loggo, the Bari
interpreter, who had constantly acted for me during two years, happened
to have been the interpreter of Signor Miani; he confessed to me how he
had been compelled by his master's escort to deceive him, by pretending
that a combined attack was to be made upon them by the natives.
Upon this excuse, Miani's men refused to proceed, and determined to turn
back to Gondokoro; thus ended his expedition. I regarded the tree that
marked the limit of his journey with much sympathy. I remembered how I
had formerly contended with similar difficulties, and how heartbreaking
it would have been to have returned, baffled by the misconduct of my own
people, when the determination of my heart urged me forward to the
south; thus I appreciated the disappointment that so enterprising a
traveller must have felt in sorrowfully cutting his name upon the tree,
and leaving it as a record of misfortune.
With a just tribute to the perseverance that had carried him farther
than any European traveller had penetrated before him, we continued our
route over a most beautiful park of verdant grass, diversified by
splendid tamarind trees, the dark foliage of which afforded harbour for
great numbers of the brilliant yellow-breasted pigeon. We shortly
ascended a rocky mountain by a stony and difficult pass, and upon
arrival at the summit, about 800 feet above the Nile, which lay in front
at about two miles' distance, we halted to enjoy the magnificent view.
"Hurrah for the old Nile!" I exclaimed, as I revelled in the scene
before me:
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