In The Evening We Arrived At Two Small Deserted Villages; These, Like
Most In The Bari Country, Were Circular, And Surrounded By A Live And
Impenetrable Fence Of Euphorbia, Having Only One Entrance.
The traders'
people camped in one, while I took up my quarters in the other.
The sun
had sunk, and the night being pitch dark, we had a glorious fire, around
which we placed our angareps opposite the narrow entrance of the camp,
about ten yards distant. I stationed Richarn as sentry outside the
gateway, as he was the most dependable of my men, and I thought it
extremely probable that we might be attacked during the night: three
other sentries I placed on guard at various stations. Dinner being
concluded, Mrs. Baker lay down on her angarep for the night. I drew the
balls from a double No. 10 smooth bore, and loaded with cartridge
containing each twenty large-mould shot (about a hundred to the pound);
putting this under my pillow I went to sleep. Hardly had I begun to
rest, when my men woke me, saying that the camp was surrounded by
natives. Upon inquiry I found this to be correct; it was so dark that
they could not be seen without stooping to the ground and looking along
the surface. I ordered the sentries not to fire unless hostilities
should commence on the side of the natives, and in no case to draw
trigger without a challenge.
Returning to the angarep I lay down, and not wishing to sleep, I smoked
my long Unyoro pipe. In about ten minutes - bang! went a shot, quickly
followed by another from the sentry at the entrance of the camp. Quietly
rising from my bed, I found Richarn reloading at his post. "What is it,
Richarn?" I asked. "They are shooting arrows into the camp, aiming at
the fire, in hopes of hitting you who are sleeping there," said Richarn.
"I watched one fellow," he continued, "as I heard the twang of his bow
four times. At each shot I heard an arrow strike the ground between me
and you, therefore I fired at him, and I think he is down. Do you see
that black object lying on the ground?" I saw something a little blacker
than the surrounding darkness, but it could not be distinguished.
Leaving Richarn with orders not to move from his post, but to keep a
good look-out until relieved by the next watch, I again went to sleep.
Before break of day, just as the grey dawn slightly improved the
darkness, I visited the sentry; he was at his post, and reported that he
thought the archer of the preceding night was dead, as he had heard a
sound proceeding from the dark object on the ground after I had left. In
a few minutes it was sufficiently light to distinguish the body of a
roan lying about thirty paces from the camp entrance. Upon examination,
he proved to be a Bari:
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