The People Of Lira Were Fighting With Their Friends The
Langgos - Those Of Shooa With The Natives Of Fatiko; Nor Were There Two
Neighbouring Tribes That Were At Peace.
It was natural that such
unprincipled parties as the Khartoum traders should turn this general
discord to their own advantage; thus within the ten months that I had
been absent from Shooa a great change had taken place in the
neighbourhood.
The rival parties of Koorshid and Debono, under their
respective leaders, Ibrahim and Mahommed Wat-el-Mek, had leagued
themselves with contending tribes, and the utter ruin of the country was
the consequence. For many miles' circuit from Shooa, the blackened ruins
of villages and deserted fields bore witness to the devastation
committed; cattle that were formerly in thousands, had been driven off,
and the beautiful district that had once been most fertile was reduced
to a wilderness. By these wholesale acts of robbery and destruction the
Turks had damaged their own interests, as the greater number of the
natives had fled to other countries; thus it was most difficult to
obtain porters to convey the ivory to Gondokoro. The people of the
country had been so spoiled by the payment in cows instead of beads for
the most trifling services, that they now refused to serve as porters to
Gondokoro under a payment of four cows each; thus, as 1,000 men were
required, 4,000 cows were necessary as payment. Accordingly razzia must
be made.
Upon several expeditions, the Turks realized about 2,000 cows; the
natives had become alert, and had driven off their herds to inaccessible
mountains.
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