The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile - Samuel White Baker (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗
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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
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