Upon several expeditions, the Turks realized about 2,000 cows; the
natives had become alert, and had driven off their herds to inaccessible
mountains.
Debono's people at their camp, about twenty-five miles
distant, were even in a worse position than Ibrahim; they had so
exasperated the natives by their brutal conduct, that tribes formerly
hostile to each other now coalesced and combined to thwart the Turks by
declining to act as porters; thus their supply of ivory could not be
transported to Gondokoro. This led to extra violence on the part of the
Turks, until at last the chief of Faloro (Werdella) declared open war,
and suddenly driving off the Turks' cattle, he retired to the mountains,
from whence he sent an impertinent message inviting Mahommed to try to
rescue them.
This act of insolence united the rival trading parties against Werdella:
those of Ibrahim and Mahommed agreed to join in an attack upon his
village. They started with a force of about 300 armed men, and arriving
at the foot of the mountains at about 4 A.M. they divided their force
into two parties of 150 men each, and ascended the rocky hill upon two
sides, intending to surprise the village on one side, while the natives
and their herds would be intercepted in their flight upon the other.
The chief, Werdella, was well experienced in the affairs of the Turks,
as he had been for two or three years engaged with them in many razzias
upon the adjoining tribes - he had learnt to shoot while acting as
their ally, and having received as presents two muskets, and two brace
of pistols from Debono's nephew Amabile, he thought it advisable to
supply himself with ammunition; he had therefore employed his people to
steal a box of 500 cart ridges and a parcel containing 10,000 percussion
caps from Mahommed's camp. Werdella was a remarkably plucky fellow; and
thus strengthened by powder and ball, and knowing the character of the
Turks, he resolved to fight.
Hardly had the Turks' party of 150 men advanced half way up the mountain
path in their stealthy manner of attempting a surprise, when they were
assailed by a shower of arrows, and the leader who carried the flag fell
dead at the report of a musket fired from behind a rock. Startled at
this unexpected attack, the Turks' party recoiled, leaving their flag
upon the ground by the dead standard-bearer. Before they had time to
recover from their first panic, another shot was fired from the same
shelter at a distance of about thirty paces, and the brains of one of
the Turks' party were splattered over his comrades, as the ball took the
top of his head completely off. Three Bagara Arabs, first-rate elephant
hunters, who were with the Turks, now rushed forward and saved the flag
and a box of ammunition that the porter had thrown down in his flight.
These Arabs, whose courage was of a different class to that of the
traders' party, endeavoured to rally the panic-stricken Turks, but just
as they were feebly and irresolutely advancing, another shot rang from
the same fatal rock, and a man who carried a box of cartridges fell
dead.
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