A Few Minutes Later, I Heard Three Shots
Fired In Rapid Succession At About Three-Quarters Of A Mile Distant.
The
Turks and my men immediately thronged outside the village, which
position being on a hill, we had a panoramic view of the surrounding
country.
We shortly perceived a number of men, including a few of the Turks'
party, approaching from an opposite hill, carrying something heavy in
their arms. With the telescope I distinguished a mat on which some
object of weight was laboriously supported, the bearers grasping the
corners in their hands. "One of our people is killed!" murmured one
Turk. "Perhaps it's only a native," said another. "Who would trouble
himself to carry a black fellow home!" exclaimed a third. The mystery
was soon cleared by the arrival of the party with the dead body of one
of Kamrasi's headmen; one ball had struck him through the chest, another
through the right arm, and the third had passed through the body from
side to side. He had been shot by some Bari slaves who acted as soldiers
belonging to the Turks' party. It appeared that the deceased had
formerly sent seventy elephants' tusks to the people of Mahommed
Wat-el-Mek against the orders of Kamrasi, who had prohibited the export
of ivory from his kingdom, as he had agreed to deal exclusively with
Ibrahim. The culprit was therefore condemned to death, but having some
powerful adherents in his village, Kamrasi had thought it advisable to
employ the Turks to shoot him; this task they gladly accepted, as they
were minus seventy tusks through his conduct.
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