Foweera Was An Excellent Military
Point, As It Was Equidistant From The Nile North And East At The Angle
Where The River Turned To The West From Atada.
I was so annoyed at the deception practised by Kamrasi that I determined
to fraternise with the M'was, should they appear at Kisoona; and I made
up my mind not to fire a shot except in absolute necessity for so
faithless an ally as the king.
This I explained to M'Gambi, and
threatened that if porters were not supplied I would wait at Kisoona,
join the M'was on their arrival, and with them as allies I would attack
the island which Kamrasi boasted was his stronghold. This idea
frightened M'Gambi, and both he and Cassave started to procure porters,
promising most faithfully to appear that evening, and to start together
to Foweera on the following morning. We were a party of twenty guns;
there was no fear in the event of an attack. I ordered all the huts of
the village to be burned except those belonging to our men; thus we had
a clear space for the guns in case of necessity. In the evening, true to
his promise, M'Gambi appeared with a number of natives, but Cassave had
followed Kamrasi.
At sunrise on the following day we started, my wife in a litter, and I
in a chair. The road was extremely bad, excessively muddy from the rain
of yesterday, trodden deeply by the hoofs of herds of cattle, and by the
feet of the thousands that had formed Kamrasi's army and camp followers.
There was no variety in the country, it was the same undulating land
overgrown with impenetrable grass, and wooded with mimosas; every swamp
being shaded by clumps of the graceful wild date.
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