I asked him, "If that were the case, why had they not communicated with
me, as I was only ninety yards distant?" He said his people had not
fired at the government troops, but only at the natives who were upon
the rock.
He could not quite explain in that case "how it was that 1,000 natives
perched upon the rock close together, had escaped without a man being
wounded, while not only were seven of the government troops knocked down
by bullets, but the huts and furniture of our camp, including boxes in
the magazine, &c, had been completely riddled with balls." He then began
to lay the blame on Wat-el-Mek, and even had the audacity to declare
that "he had nothing to do with slaves, but that he could not restrain
his people from kidnapping." I never heard any human being pour out such
a cataract of lies as this scoundrel. His plausibility and assurance
were such that I stood aghast; and after he had delivered a long speech,
in which he declared that "he was the innocent victim of adverse
circumstances, and that every one was against him," I could merely reply
by dismissing him with the assurance that there was "only one really
good and honest man in the world, who invariably spoke the truth; this
man was ABOU SAOOD. All other men were liars."
On the following morning Abou Saood came to take leave. He pretended to
devote himself to my service, and declared that he should now at once
return to Fabbo and organize the best of his people into an irregular
corps for the government, and he should act with energy as my vakeel,
and assist me in every manner possible. He begged me not to believe a
word that any one might say EXCEPT HIMSELF, and he swore by the eyes and
head of the Prophet (this was his favourite oath whenever he told the
biggest lie) that there was no one so true to me as he, which he would
prove by his acts. He then went back to Fabbo.
This is the last time that I ever saw Abou Saood. He took 200 men upon
his arrival at Fabbo, and after having told his men to cut the throat of
the sheik Werdella, who was a prisoner in the Fabbo camp under my
special orders for protection, he went straight to Gondokoro to his
friend Raouf Bey.
This officer, who commanded at head-quarters during my absence, although
he heard from Abou Saood's people of the attack made upon me at Fatiko,
and Abou Saood had arrived without either a passport or letters from
myself, positively allowed him to depart to Khartoum.
