It
was a complete fix. There were no cattle in any of Abou Saood's
stations; they had all been consumed; and he now came to me with a
request that I would lend him eighty oxen, as his people had nothing to
eat.
It was clearly impossible to move the ivory. Thus, in spite of my orders
given to Abou Saood about ten months previous, the opportunity of moving
had been lost, and the time of departure was reduced to sine die. This
was a hopeless condition of affairs. There were no cattle in Abou
Saood's possession, and without cows the ivory could not be moved. At
the same time, it would be impossible for me to permit him to make
razzias upon distant countries, as I had arrived to establish
government, and to afford protection to all tribes that would declare
their allegiance.
I now discovered that the principal vakeel of Abou Saood, named Mohammed
Wat-el-Mek, had only recently started with a large force, by Abou
Saood's orders, to invade the Kooshi country on the west side of the
White Nile, close to its exit from the Albert N'yanza.
This was a tribe that could not possibly have interfered with Abou
Saood; but as the cattle had been exhausted on the east bank of the
river, he had commenced a series of razzias upon the west. The Koshi
were people with whom friendship should have been established, as they
were on the navigable Nile that would eventually be traversed by the
steamer, when constructed at Ibrahimeyah. It was thus that all tribes
were rendered hostile by the slave-hunters.
Mohammed Wat-el-Mek (son of the king) was the man who had first
discovered and opened up the countries south of Gondokoro. This person
was a curious but useful character that I had always wished to employ,
as he had great power with the natives, and he knew every nook and
corner of the country.
I had known him during my former journey, and it appears that he had
always wished to serve me in the present expedition. The slave-traders
of Khartoum had been determined to prevent Wat-el-Mek from communicating
with me; thus, when I had arrived in Khartoum, this important personage
was actually there; but he was quickly sent by Abou Saood under some
frivolous pretext up the Blue Nile, to keep him out of the way.
On arrival at Gondokoro, he had studiously been retained on the west
bank of the river, and his name had been kept so secret, that I had
never heard it mentioned. Thus, although both at Khartoum and at
Gondokoro Wat-el-Mek had been within a few hundred paces of me, I had
always supposed that he was in Central Africa.
Abou Saood now declared that Wat-el-Mek had started many days ago from
Fatiko to Koshi; but I subsequently discovered that he had only left
Fatiko on the morning of my arrival, and that he was kept waiting at
Fabbo station, only twenty-two miles west of Fatiko, for several days,
while I had been told by Abou Saood that he had gone to Koshi.
