Mahamed Now Disposed Of Half Of His Herd Of Cows,
Giving Them To The Chiefs Of The Villages In Return For Porters.
These, he said, were all that belonged to the government; for the
half of all captures of cows, as well as all slaves, all goats,
and sheep, were allowed to the men as part of their pay.
When all was settled we marched, one thousand strong, to Wurungi;
and next day, by a double march, arrived at Marson, in the Bari
country. I wished still to put up in the native villages, but
Mahamed so terrified all my men, by saying these Bari would kill
us in the night if we did not all sleep together in one large
camp, that we were obliged to submit. The country, still flanked
on the right by hills, was undulating and very prettily wooded.
Villages were numerous, but as we passed them the inhabitants all
fled from us, save a few men, who, bolder than the rest, would
stand and look on at us as we marched along. Both night and
morning the Turks beat their drums; and whenever they stopped to
eat they sacked the villages.
Pushing on by degrees, stopping at noon to eat, we came again in
sight of the Nile, and put up at a station called Doro, within a
short distance of the well-known hill Rijeb, where Nile voyagers
delight in cutting their names. The country continued the same,
but the grass was conspicuously becoming shorter and finer every
day - so much so, that my men all declared it was a sign of our
near approach to England. After we had settled down for the
night, and the Turks had finished plundering the nearest
villages, we heard two guns fired, and immediately afterwards the
whole place was alive with Bari people. Their drums were beaten
as a sign that they would attack us, and the war-drums of the
villages around responded by beating also. The Turks grew
somewhat alarmed at this, and as darkness began to set in, sent
out patrols in addition to their nightly watches. The savages
next tried to steal in on us, but were soon frightened off by the
patrols cocking their guns. Then, seeing themselves defeated in
that tactic, they collected in hundreds in front of us, set fire
to the grass, and marched up and down, brandishing ignited grass
in their hands, howling like demons, and swearing they would
annihilate us in the morning.
We slept the night out, nevertheless, and next morning walked in
to Gondokoro, N. Lat. 4§ 54' 5", and E. long. 31§ 46' 9", where
Mahamed, after firing a salute, took us in to see a Circassian
merchant, named Kurshid Agha. Our first inquiry was, of course,
for Petherick. A mysterious silence ensued; we were informed
that Mr Debono was THE man we had to thank for the assistance we
had received in coming from Madi; and then in hot haste, after
warm exchanges of greeting with Mahamed's friend, who was
Debono's agent here, we took leave, to hunt up Petherick.
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