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

1,000 men were

required, 4,000 cows were necessary as payment. Accordingly razzia must

be made.

 

Upon several expeditions, the Turks realized about 2,000 cows; the

natives had become alert, and had driven off their herds to inaccessible

mountains. Debono’s people at their camp, about twenty-five miles

distant, were even in a worse position than Ibrahim; they had so

exasperated the natives by their brutal conduct, that tribes formerly

hostile to each other now coalesced and combined to thwart the Turks by

declining to act as porters; thus their supply of ivory could not be

transported to Gondokoro. This led to extra violence on the part of the

Turks, until at last the chief of Faloro (Werdella) declared open war,

and suddenly driving off the Turks’ cattle, he retired to the mountains,

from whence he sent an impertinent message inviting Mahommed to try to

rescue them.

 

This act of insolence united the rival trading parties against Werdella:

those of Ibrahim and Mahommed agreed to join in an attack upon his

village. They started with a force of about 300 armed men, and arriving

at the foot of the mountains at about 4 A.M. they divided their force

into two parties of 150 men each, and ascended the rocky hill upon two

sides, intending to surprise the village on one side, while the natives

and their herds would be intercepted in their flight upon the other.

 

The chief, Werdella, was well experienced in the affairs of the Turks,

as he had been for two or three years engaged with them in many razzias

upon the adjoining tribes—he had learnt to shoot while acting as

their ally, and having received as presents two muskets, and two brace

of pistols from Debono’s nephew Amabile, he thought it advisable to

supply himself with ammunition; he had therefore employed his people to

steal a box of 500 cart ridges and a parcel containing 10,000 percussion

caps from Mahommed’s camp. Werdella was a remarkably plucky fellow; and

thus strengthened by powder and ball, and knowing the character of the

Turks, he resolved to fight.

 

Hardly had the Turks’ party of 150 men advanced half way up the mountain

path in their stealthy manner of attempting a surprise, when they were

assailed by a shower of arrows, and the leader who carried the flag fell

dead at the report of a musket fired from behind a rock. Startled at

this unexpected attack, the Turks’ party recoiled, leaving their flag

upon the ground by the dead standard-bearer. Before they had time to

recover from their first panic, another shot was fired from the same

shelter at a distance of about thirty paces, and the brains of one of

the Turks’ party were splattered over his comrades, as the ball took the

top of his head completely off. Three Bagara Arabs, first-rate elephant

hunters, who were with the Turks, now rushed forward and saved the flag

and a box of ammunition that the porter had thrown down in his flight.

These Arabs, whose courage was of a different class to that of the

traders’ party, endeavoured to rally the panic-stricken Turks, but just

as they were feebly and irresolutely advancing, another shot rang from

the same fatal rock, and a man who carried a box of cartridges fell

dead. This was far too hot for the traders’ people, who usually had it

all their own way, being alone possessed of firearms. A disgraceful

flight took place, but Werdella was again too much for them. On their

arrival at the bottom of the hill, they ran round the base to join the

other division of their party; this effected, they were consulting

together as to retreat or advance, when close above their heads from an

overhanging rock another shot was fired, and a man dropped, shot through

the chest. The head of Werdella was distinctly seen grinning in triumph;

—the whole party fired at him! “He’s down!” was shouted, as the head

disappeared;—a puff of smoke from the rock, and a shriek from one of

the Turks at the sound of another musket shot from the same spot,

settled the question; a man fell mortally wounded. Four men were shot

dead, and one was brought home by the crestfallen party to die in two or

three days; five shots had been fired, and five killed, by one native

armed with two guns against 300 men. “Bravo, Werdella!” I exclaimed, as

the beaten party returned to camp and Ibrahim described the fight. He

deserved the Victoria Cross. This defeat completely cowed the cowardly

Turks; nor would any persuasions on the part of Ibrahim induce them to

make another razzia within the territory of the redoubted chief,

Werdella.

 

During the absence of the traders’ party upon various expeditions, about

fifty men were left in their camp as headquarters. Nothing could exceed

the brutality of the people; they had erected stills, and produced a

powerful corn spirit from the native merissa; their entire time was

passed in gambling, drinking, and fighting, both by night and day. The

natives were ill-treated, their female slaves and children brutally

illused, and the entire camp was a mere slice from the infernal

regions. My portion of the camp being a secluded courtyard, we were

fortunately independent.

 

On one occasion a razzia had been made; and although unsuccessful in

cattle, it had been productive in slaves. Among the captives was a

pretty young girl of about fifteen; she had been sold by auction in the

camp, as usual, the day after the return from the razzia, and had fallen

to the lot of one of the men. Some days after her capture, a native from

the village that had been plundered confidently arrived at the camp with

the intention of offering ivory for her ransom. Hardly had he entered

the gateway, when the girl, who was sitting at the door of her owner’s

hut, caught sight of him, and springing to her feet, she ran as fast as

her chained ankles would allow her, and threw herself in his arms,

exclaiming, “My father!” It was her father, who had thus risked his life

in the enemy’s camp to ransom his child.

 

The men who were witnesses to this scene immediately rushed upon the

unfortunate man, tore him from his daughter, and bound him tightly with

cords.

 

While this was enacting, I happened to be in my hut; thus I was not an

eyewitness. About an hour later, I called some of my men to assist me

in cleaning some rifles. Hardly had we commenced, when three shots were

fired within a hundred paces of my hut. My men exclaimed, “They have

shot the Abid (native)!” “What native?” I inquired. They then related

the story I have just described. Brutal as these bloodthirsty villains

were, I could hardly believe in so cold-blooded a murder. I immediately

sent my people and the boy Saat to verify it; they returned with the

report that the wretched father was sitting on the ground, bound to a

tree, dead; shot by three balls.

 

I must do Ibrahim the justice to explain that he was not in the camp;

had he been present, this murder would not have been committed, as he

scrupulously avoided any such acts in my vicinity. A few days later, a

girl about sixteen, and her mother, who were slaves, were missing; they

had escaped. The hue and cry was at once raised. Ibrahimawa, the

“Sinbad” of Bornu, who had himself been a slave, was the most

indefatigable slave-hunter. He and a party at once started upon the

tracks of the fugitives. They did not return until the following day;

but where was the runaway who could escape from so true a bloodhound?

The young girl and her mother were led into camp tied together by the

neck, and were immediately condemned to be hanged. I happened to be

present, as, knowing the whole affair, I had been anxiously awaiting the

result. I took this opportunity of explaining to the Turks that I would

use any force to prevent such an act, and that I would report the names

of all those to the Egyptian authorities who should commit any murder

that I could prove; neither would I permit the two captives to be

flogged—they were accordingly pardoned. [It will be observed that at

this period of the expedition I had acquired an extraordinary influence

over the people, that enabled me to exert an authority which saved the

lives of many unfortunate creatures who would otherwise have been

victims.]

 

There was among the slaves a woman who had been captured in the attack

upon Fowooka. This woman I have already mentioned as having a very

beautiful boy, who at the time of the capture was a little more than a

year old.

 

So determined was her character, that she had run away five times with

her child, but on every occasion she had been recaptured, after having

suffered much by hunger and thirst in endeavouring to find her way back

to Unyoro through the uninhabited wilderness between Shooa and Karuma.

On the last occasion of her capture, the Turks had decided upon her

being incorrigible, therefore she had received 144 blows with the

coorbatch (hippopotamus whip), and had been sold separately from her

child to the party belonging to Mahommed Wat-el-Mek. Little Abbai had

always been a great pet of Mrs. Baker’s, and the unfortunate child being

now motherless, he was naturally adopted, and led a most happy life.

Although much under two years old, he was quite equal in precocity to a

European child of three; in form and strength he was a young Hercules,

and, although so young, he would frequently follow me out shooting for

two or three miles, and return home with a guinea-fowl hanging over his

shoulder, or his hands full of pigeons. Abbai became very civilized; he

was taught to make a Turkish “salaam” upon receiving a present, and to

wash his hands both before and after his meals. He had the greatest

objection to eat alone, and he generally invited three or four friends

of about his own age to dine with him; on such occasions, a large wooden

bowl, about twenty inches in diameter, was filled with soup and

porridge, around which steaming dish the young party sat, happier in

their slavery than kings in power. There were two lovely girls of three

and eight years of age that belonged to Ibrahim; these were not black,

but of the same dark brown tint as Kamrasi and many of the Unyoro

people. Their mother was also there, and their history being most

pitiable, they were always allowed free access to our hut and the dinner

bowl. These two girls were the daughters of Owine, one of the great

chiefs who were allied with Fowooka against Kamrasi. After the defeat of

Fowooka, Owine and many of his people with their families quitted the

country, and forming an alliance with Mahommed Wat-el-Mek, they settled

in the neighbourhood of his camp at Faloro, and built a village. For

some time they were on the best terms, but some cattle of the Turks

being missed, suspicion fell upon the new settlers. The men of

Mahommed’s party desired that they might be expelled, and Mahommed, in a

fit of drunken fury, at once ordered them to be MASSACRED. His men,

eager for murder and plunder, immediately started upon their bloody

errand, and surrounding the unsuspecting colony, they fired the huts and

killed EVERY MAN, including the chief, Owine; capturing the women and

children as slaves. Ibrahim had received the mother and two girls as

presents from Mahommed Wat-el-Mek. As the two rival companies had been

forced to fraternize, owing to the now generally hostile attitude of the

surrounding tribes, the leaders had become wonderfully polite,

exchanging presents, getting drunk together upon raw spirits, and

behaving in a brotherly