The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, Samuel White Baker [inspirational novels .TXT] 📗

reeds or other light

wood, about three feet long, and slightly knobbed at the base as a hold

for the finger and thumb; the string is never drawn with the two

forefingers, as in most countries, but is simply pulled by holding the

arrow between the middle joint of the forefinger and the thumb. A stiff

bow drawn in this manner has very little power; accordingly the extreme

range seldom exceeds a hundred and ten yards.

 

The Bari tribe are very hostile, and are considered to be about the

worst of the White Nile. They have been so often defeated by the

traders’ parties in the immediate neighborhood of Gondokoro, that they

are on their best behavior, while within half a mile of the station; but

it is not at all uncommon to be asked for beads as a tax for the right

of sitting under a shady tree, or for passing through the country. The

traders’ people, in order to terrify them into submission, were in the

habit of binding them, hands and feet, and carrying them to the edge of

a cliff about thirty feet high, a little beyond the ruins of the old

mission-house: beneath this cliff the river boils in a deep eddy; into

this watery grave the victims were remorselessly hurled as food for

crocodiles. It appeared that this punishment was dreaded by the natives

more than the bullet or rope, and it was accordingly adopted by the

trading parties.

 

Upon my arrival at Gondokoro I was looked upon by all these parties as a

spy sent by the British Government. Whenever I approached the

encampments of the various traders, I heard the clanking of fetters

before I reached the station, as the slaves were being quickly driven

into hiding-places to avoid inspection. They were chained by two rings

secured round the ankles, and connected by three or four links. One of

these traders was a Copt, the father of the American Consul at Khartoum;

and, to my surprise, I saw the vessels full of brigands arrive at

Gondokoro, with the American flag flying at the masthead.

 

Gondokoro was a perfect hell. It is utterly ignored by the Egyptian

authorities, although well known to be a colony of cutthroats. Nothing

would be easier than to send a few officers and two hundred men from

Khartoum to form a military government, and thus impede the slave-trade;

but a bribe from the traders to the authorities is sufficient to insure

an uninterrupted asylum for any amount of villany. The camps were full

of slaves, and the Bari natives assured me that there were large depots

of slaves in the interior belonging to the traders that would be marched

to Gondokoro for shipment to the Soudan a few hours after my departure.

I was the great stumbling-block to the trade, and my presence at

Gondokoro was considered as an unwarrantable intrusion upon a locality

sacred to slavery and iniquity. There were about six hundred of the

traders’ people at Gondokoro, whose time was passed in drinking,

quarrelling, and ill-treating the slaves. The greater number were in a

constant state of intoxication, and when in such a state, it was their

invariable custom to fire off their guns in the first direction prompted

by their drunken instincts; thus, from morning till night, guns were

popping in all quarters, and the bullets humming through the air

sometimes close to our ears, and on more than one occasion they struck

up the dust at my feet. Nothing was more probable than a ball through

the head by ACCIDENT, which might have had the beneficial effect of

ridding the traders from a spy. A boy was sitting upon the gunwale of

one of the boats, when a bullet suddenly struck him in the head,

shattering the skull to atoms. NO ONE HAD DONE IT. The body fell into

the water, and the fragments of the skull were scattered on the deck.

 

After a few days’ detention at Gondokoro, I saw unmistakeable signs of

discontent among my men, who had evidently been tampered with by the

different traders’ parties. One evening several of the most disaffected

came to me with a complaint that they had not enough meat, and that they

must be allowed to make a razzia upon the cattle of the natives to

procure some oxen. This demand being of course refused, they retired,

muttering in an insolent manner their determination of stealing cattle

with or without my permission. I said nothing at the time, but early on

the following morning I ordered the drum to beat, and the men to fall

in. I made them a short address, reminding them of the agreement made at

Khartoum to follow me faithfully, and of the compact that had been

entered into, that they were neither to indulge in slave-hunting nor in

cattle-stealing. The only effect of my address was a great outbreak of

insolence on the part of the ringleader of the previous evening. This

fellow, named Eesur, was an Arab, and his impertinence was so violent,

that I immediately ordered him twenty-five lashes, as an example to the

others.

 

Upon the vakeel (Saati) advancing to seize him, there was a general

mutiny. Many of the men threw down their guns and seized sticks, and

rushed to the rescue of their tall ringleader. Saati was a little man,

and was perfectly helpless. Here was an escort: these were the men upon

whom I was to depend in hours of difficulty and danger on an expedition

in unknown regions; these were the fellows that I had considered to be

reduced “from wolves to lambs!”

 

I was determined not to be done, and to insist upon the punishment of

the ringleader. I accordingly went towards him with the intention of

seizing him; but he, being backed by upwards of forty men, had the

impertinence to attack me, rushing forward with a fury that was

ridiculous. To stop his blow, and to knock him into the middle of the

crowd, was not difficult; and after a rapid repetition of the dose, I

disabled him, and seizing him by the throat, I called to my vakeel Saati

for a rope to bind him, but in an instant I had a crowd of men upon me

to rescue their leader. How the affair would have ended I cannot say;

but as the scene lay within ten yards of my boat, my wife, who was ill

with fever in the cabin, witnessed the whole affray, and seeing me

surrounded, she rushed out, and in a few moments she was in the middle

of the crowd, who at that time were endeavoring to rescue my prisoner.

Her sudden appearance had a curious effect, and calling upon several of

the least mutinous to assist, she very pluckily made her way up to me.

Seizing the opportunity of an indecision that was for the moment evinced

by the crowd, I shouted to the drummer boy to beat the drum. In an

instant the drum beat, and at the top of my voice I ordered the men to

“fall in.” It is curious how mechanically an order is obeyed if given at

the right moment, even in the midst of mutiny. Two-thirds of the men

fell in, and formed in line, while the remainder retreated with the

ringleader, Eesur, whom they led away, declaring that he was badly hurt.

The affair ended in my insisting upon all forming in line, and upon the

ringleader being brought forward. In this critical moment Mrs. Baker,

with great tact, came forward and implored me to forgive him if he

kissed my hand and begged for pardon. This compromise completely won the

men, who, although a few minutes before in open mutiny, now called upon

their ringleader Eesur to apologize, and that all would be right. I made

them rather a bitter speech, and dismissed them.

 

From that moment I knew that my expedition was fated. This outbreak was

an example of what was to follow. Previous to leaving Khartoum I had

felt convinced that I could not succeed with such villains for escort as

these Khartoumers: thus I had applied to the Egyptian authorities for a

few troops, but had been refused. I was now in an awkward position. All

my men had received five months’ wages in advance, according to the

custom of the White Nile; thus I had no control over them. There were no

Egyptian authorities in Gondokoro; it was a nest of robbers; and my men

had just exhibited so pleasantly their attachment to me, and their

fidelity. There was no European beyond Gondokoro, thus I should be the

only white man among this colony of wolves; and I had in perspective a

difficult and uncertain path, where the only chance of success lay in

the complete discipline of my escort, and the perfect organization of

the expedition. After the scene just enacted I felt sure that my escort

would give me more cause for anxiety than the acknowledged hostility of

the natives.

 

I made arrangements with a Circassian trader, Koorshid Aga, for the

purchase of a few oxen, and a fat beast was immediately slaughtered for

the men. They were shortly in the best humour, feasting upon masses of

flesh cut in strips and laid for a few minutes upon the embers, while

the regular meal was being prepared. They were now almost affectionate,

vowing that they would follow me to the end of the world; while the late

ringleader, in spite of his countenance being rather painted in the late

row, declared that no man would be so true as himself, and that every

“arrow should pass through him before it should reach me” in the event

of a conflict with the natives. A very slight knowledge of human nature

was required to foresee the future with such an escort:—if love and

duty were dependent upon full bellies, mutiny and disorder would appear

with hard fare. However, by having parade every morning at a certain

hour, I endeavoured to establish a degree of regularity. I had been

waiting at Gondokoro twelve days, expecting the arrival of Debono’s

party from the south, with whom I wished to return. Suddenly, on the

15th February, I heard the rattle of musketry at a great distance, and a

dropping fire from the south. To give an idea of the moment I must

extract verbatim from my journal as written at the time.

 

“Guns firing in the distance; Debono’s ivory porters arriving, for whom

I have waited. My men rushed madly to my boat, with the report that two

white men were with them who had come from the SEA! Could they be Speke

and Grant? Off I ran, and soon met them in reality. Hurrah for old

England! they had come from the Victoria N’yanza, from which the Nile

springs …. The mystery of ages solved. With my pleasure of meeting

them is the one disappointment, that I had not met them farther on the

road in my search for them; however, the satisfaction is, that my

previous arrangements had been such as would have insured my finding

them had they been in a fix …. My projected route would have brought

me vis-a-vis with them, as they had come from the lake by the course I

had proposed to take …. All my men perfectly mad with excitement:

firing salutes as usual with ball cartridge, they shot one of my

donkeys; a melancholy sacrifice as an offering at the completion of this

geographical discovery.”

 

When I first met them they were walking along the bank of the river

towards my boats. At a distance of about a hundred yards I recognised my

old friend Speke, and with a heart beating with joy I took off my cap

and gave a welcome hurrah! as I ran towards him. For the moment he did