In The Best Good-Humour Now, I Showed
Mahamed Our Picture-Books:
And as he said he always drilled his
two hundred men every Friday, I said I would, if he liked,
command them myself.
This being agreed to, all the men turned
out in their best, and, to my surprise, they not only knew the
Turkish words of command, but manoeuvred with some show of good
training; though, as might have been expected with men of this
ragamuffin stamp, all the privates gave orders as well as their
captains.
When the review was over, I complimented Mahamed on the
efficiency of his corps, and, retiring to my hut, as I thought I
had him now in a good-humour, again discussed our plans for going
ahead the next day. Scarcely able to look me in the face, the
humbugging scoundrel said he could not think of allowing me to go
on without him, for if any accident happened he would be blamed
for it. At the same time, he could not move for a few days, as
he expected a party of men to arrive about the next new moon with
ivory. My hurry he thought was uncalled for; for, as I had
spent so many days with Kamrasi, why could I not be content to do
so with him?
I was provoked beyond measure with this, as it upset all my
plans. Kidgwiga's men were deserting, and I feared I should not
be able to keep my promise to Kamrasi of sending him another
white visitor, who would perhaps do what I had left undone, when
I did not follow up the connection of the Little Luta Nzige with
the Nile. We battled away again, and then Mahamed said there was
not one man in his camp who would go with me until their crops
were cut and taken in; for whilst residing here they grew grain
for their support. We battled again, and Mahamed at last, out of
patience himself, said, "Just look here, what a fix I am in,"
showing me a hut full of ivory. "Who," he said, "is to carry all
this until the natives have got in their crops?" This, I said,
so far as I was concerned, was all nonsense. I merely had asked
him for a guide and interpreter, for go I must. In a huff he
then absconded; and my men - those of them who were not too drunk-
-came and said to me, "For Godsake let us stop here. Mahamed
says the road is too dangerous for us to go alone; he has
promised to carry all our loads for us if we stop; and all
Kamrasi's men are running away, because they are afraid to go
on."
6th. - Next morning I called Kidgwiga, and begged him to procure
two men as guides and interpreters. He said he could not find
any. I then went at Mahamed again, who first said he would give
me the two men I wanted, then went off, and sent word to say he
would not be visible for three days. This was too much for my
patience, so I ordered all my things to be tied up in marching
order, and gave out that I should leave and find out the way
myself the following morning. Like an evil spirit stirred up, my
preparations for going no sooner were heard of than Mahamed
appeared again, and after a long and sharp contest in words, he
promised us guides if I would consent to write him a note,
testifying that my going was against his expressed desire.
This was done; but the next morning (7th), after our things were
put out for the march, all Kidgwiga's men bolted, and no guides
would take service with us. It was now obvious that, even
supposing I succeeded in taking Kidgwiga to Gondokoro, he would
not have a sufficient escort to come back with, unless, indeed,
it happened that Englishmen might be there who might wish to
carry out my investigations by penetrating to the Little Luta
Nzige, and to pay a visit to Kamrasi. I therefore called
Kidgwiga, and after explaining these circumstances, advised him
to go back to Kamrasi. He was loth to leave, he said, until his
commission was fully performed; but as I thought it advisable, he
would consent. I then gave him a double gun and ammunition, as
well as some very rich beads which I obtained from Mahamed's
stores, to take back to Kamrasi, with orders to say that, as soon
as I reached Gondokoro or Khartum, I would send another white man
to him - not by the way I had come through Kidi, but by the left
bank of the Nile: to which Kidgwiga replied, "That will do
famously, for Kamrasi will change his residence soon, and come on
the Nile this side of Rionga's palace, in order that he may cut
in between his brother and the Turks' guns."
After this, I gave a lot of rich beads to Kidgwiga for himself,
and a lot also for the senior officers at the Chopi and Kamrasi's
palaces, and sent the whole set off as happy as birds. When
these men were gone, I tried to get up an elephant-shooting
excursion due west of this, with a view to see where the Nile
was, for I would not believe it was very far off, although no one
as yet, since I left Chopi, either would or could tell me where
the stream had gone to.
8th. Mahamed professed to be delighted I had made up my mind to
such a scheme. He called the heads of the villages to give me
all the information I sought for, and went with me to the top of
a high rock, from which we could see the hills I first viewed at
Chopi, sweeping round from south by east to north, which demarked
the line of the Asua river. The Nile at that moment was, I
believed, not very far off; yet, do or say what I would,
everybody said it was fifteen marches off, and could not be
visited under a month.[FN#25] It would be necessary for me to
take thirty-six of Mahamed's men, besides all my own, to go
there, which, he said, I was welcome to, but I should have to pay
them for their services.
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