The Traders March In Good Form; One Flag Leads The Party, Guarded By
Eight Or Ten Men, While A Native Carries A Box Of Five Hundred
Cartridges For Their Use In Case Of An Attack.
The porters and baggage
follow in single file, soldiers being at intervals to prevent them from
running away; in which case the runner is invariably fired at The supply
of ammunition is in the centre, carried generally by about fifteen
natives, and strongly escorted by guards.
The rear of the party is
closed by another flag behind which no straggler is permitted. The rear
flag is also guarded by six or eight men, with a box of spare
ammunition. With these arrangements the party is always ready to support
an attack.
Ibrahim, my new ally, was now riding in front of the line, carrying on
his saddle before him a pretty little girl, his daughter, a child of a
year and a half old; her mother, a remarkably pretty Bari girl, one of
his numerous wives, was riding behind him on an ox. We soon got into
conversation; - a few pieces of sugar given to the child and mother by
Mrs. Baker was a sweet commencement; and Ibrahim then told me to beware
of my own men, as he knew they did not intend to remain with me; that
they were a different tribe from his men, and they would join Chenooda's
people and desert me on our arrival at their station in Latooka. This
was a corroboration of all I had heard previous to leaving Gondokoro,
therefore I had the promised mutiny in perspective.
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