Chapter XXV (2)

“Now, my men,” I said, “obey me at once, and to the letter. He who hesitates is lost. Open your ears and be sharp. ‘Ground arms!’ It was done promptly. ‘Retire four paces to the rear!’ They withdrew quietly. ‘Now, Captain Stairs, march your company to the front, and take possession of the rifles,” which was done.

Captain Nelson was then ordered to make his report as to the cause of the caravan’s return. He pointed out the ringleaders concerned in the outbreak, and those who had cried, “Shoot them all, and let us run to Mazamboni.” These were at once seized and punished. The ringleaders were tied to the flag-staff. The caravan was again entrusted to Captain Nelson, but without arms, and was marched away to its duty.

Near sunset, Hassan Bakari having absented himself without permission, was lightly punished with a cane by the captain of his company. On being released, he rushed in a furious temper to his hut, vowing he would shoot himself. He was caught in the act of preparing his rifle for the deed. Five men were required to restrain him. Hearing the news, I proceeded to the scene, and gently asked the reason of this outburst. He declaimed against the shame which had been put on him, as he was a freeman of good family and was not accustomed to be struck like a slave. Remarks appropriate to his wounded feelings were addressed to him, to which he gratefully responded. His rifle was restored to him with a smile. He did not use it.

_March 11th_.--Forty-one natives descended to the Nyanza to-day for more baggage. These make a total of 928 men sent down for the same purpose up to date.

_March 12th_.--“Three O’clock,” the hunter, took a caravan to the Nyanza, consisting of thirty-four Zanzibaris and twenty-five natives.

_March 13th_.--Lieut. Stairs, R.E., took down to the Lake sixty-three Zanzibaris and Manyuema.

The forty-one natives who left on the 11th inst. returned to-day, bringing with them absolute rubbish--wooden bedsteads, twenty gallon copper pots, and some more flat rocks, which the Soudanese call grinding-stones. They complained that when they objected to carry these heavy, useless weights they were cruelly beaten.

As I have informed the Pasha several times that I cannot allow such rubbish to be carried, and as the Pasha has written to that effect to Osman Latif Effendi, the commander of the Lake shore camp, and his orders are not obeyed, I shall presently have to stop this cruel work.

_March 14th_.--Twenty-one of the Balegga have offered their services, and have been sent down to the Lake to carry baggage. Total loads up to date, 1,037.

I consider this carrier work to which I have subjected myself, officers, and men, as an essential part of my duty to my guests. They may not be deserving of this sacrifice on our part, but that makes no difference. What I regret is that such severe labour should be incurred uselessly. If any one of them were to express a concern that we were put to so much trouble, most of us would regard it as some compensation. But I have heard nothing which would lead me to believe that they regard this assistance as anything more than their due.

I see the Egyptian officers congregating in special and select groups each day, seated on their mats, smoking cigarettes, and discussing our absolute slavishness. They have an idea that any one of them is better than ten Zanzibaris, but I have not seen any ten of them that could be so useful in Africa as one Zanzibari.

[Sidenote: 1889.

March 14.

Kavalli’s.]

_March 15th_.--Lieut. Stairs appeared with his caravan to-day. He reports that there are 100 people still at the Nyanza Camp, with an immense pile of baggage of the usual useless kind just arrived from Mswa station.

Shukri Agha, commandant of Mswa, has also arrived. At an interview with him, in the presence of the Pasha, I informed him in plain terms that if he expected to retire to the coast he would have to set about it immediately. I told him that I had been amazed at many things since my arrival the third time at the Lake, but the most wonderful thing of all was the utter disregard to instructions and orders manifested by everybody. In May last, ten months ago, they had all been informed of the cause of our coming. They had promised to be ready, and now he, Shukri Agha, had come to us to ask us for instructions, just as though he had never heard anything of the matter. If he, a commandant of a station, and commander of troops, appeared to be so slow to comprehend, how ever was it possible to convey it into the sense of the Soudanese soldier. All I had to say now was, that unless he, Shukri Agha, paid attention to what I said, he would be left behind to take the consequences.

[Sidenote: 1889.

March 15.

Kavalli’s.]

“Ah,” says Shukri, “I will go back to Mswa, and the very next day I shall embark the women and children on the steamers, and I shall march with our cattle through Melindwa overland, and we shall all be here in seven days.”

“I shall expect you on the tenth day from this, with your families, soldiers, and cattle.”

The Pasha said to me in the evening, “Shukri Agha has given me his solemn promise that he will obey the orders I have given him to depart from Mswa at once.”

“Did you write them firmly, Pasha, in such a manner that there can be no doubt!”

“Surely, I did so.”

“Do you think he will obey them?”

“Most certainly. What, Shukri Agha! He will be here in ten days without fail, and all his soldiers with him.”

_March 16th_.--Shukri Agha descended to the Nyanza to-day; also 108 carriers, natives, for baggage.

_March 17th_.--Twenty-nine natives of Malai’s tribe, and sixteen natives of Bugombi, have been sent to the Nyanza Camp. Total, 1,190 carriers up to date.

The Pasha proceeded this morning to the Baregga Hills for a picnic, and to increase his ornithological and entomological collections. A goat was taken up also to be slaughtered for the lunch. Lieut. Stairs, Mr. Jephson, Captain Nelson, Surgeon Parke, and Mr. Bonny have gone up with quite a following to encourage him to do his best and keep him company.

[Sidenote: 1889.

March 17.

Kavalli’s.]

Yesterday Jephson and I had examined the summits of the hills, and in one of the hollows we had discovered tree ferns, standing eight feet high, with stalks eight inches in diameter. We also brought with us a few purple flowering heliotropes, aloes, and rock ferns for the Pasha. All this has inspired him with a desire to investigate the flora for himself.

These hills have an altitude varying from 5,400 to 5,600 feet above the sea. The folds and hollows between these hills are here and there somewhat picturesque, though on account of late grass burnings they are not at their best just now. Each of the hollows has its own clear water rillet, and along their courses are bamboos, tree ferns, small palms, and bush, much of which is in flower. From the lively singing of the birds I heard yesterday, it was thought likely this insatiable collector might be able to add to his store of stuffed giant-larks, thrushes, bee-eaters, sun-birds, large pigeons, &c. Only four specimens were obtained, and the Pasha is not happy.

In a bowl-like basin, rimmed around by rugged and bare rocks, I saw a level terrace a mile and a half long by a mile wide, green as a tennis lawn. Round about the foot of this terrace ran a clear rivulet, through a thick bank of woods, the tops of which just came to the level of the terrace. It has been the nicest site for a mission or a community of white men that I have seen for a long time. The altitude was 5,500 feet above the sea. From the crest of the rocky hills encircling it we may obtain a view covering 3,000 square miles of one of the most gloriously beautiful lands in the world. Pisgah, sixty miles westward, dominates all eminences and ridges in the direction of the forest world; Ruwenzori, 18,000 to 19,000, white with perpetual snow, eighty miles off, bounds the view south; to the east the eye looks far over the country of Unyoro; and north-east lies the length of the Albert Nyanza. On the terrace the picnic was held.

[Sidenote: 1889.

March 18.

Kavalli’s.]

_March 18th_.--The redoubtable Rudimi, chief of Usiri, has at last joined our confederacy. Besides seven head of cattle, seven goats, and an ample store of millet flour and sweet potatoes, he brought me thirty-one carriers. They were immediately sent to the Lake shore camp.

We can now trust these natives to handle any property unguarded. Altogether fifteen chiefs have submitted to our stipulation that they shall cease fighting with one another; that they shall submit all causes of complaint to us, and agree to our decisions. The result is that the Wavira shake hands with the Wasiri, the Balegga, and the Wahuma. The cases are frequently very trivial, but so far our decisions have given satisfaction.

The camp now consists of 339 huts and five tents, exclusive of Kavalli’s village, on the southern side of which our town has grown. There are sometimes as many as 2,000 people in it.

_March 21st_.--The natives of Melindwa, having made a descent upon Ruguji’s, one of our Wahuma allies, and captured forty head of his cattle, Lieut. Stairs and Mr. Jephson were despatched with Companies 1 and 2, and returned with 310 head of cattle. Ruguji recognised his cattle and received them. The Wahuma are all herdsmen and shepherds. The Wavira devote themselves to agriculture.

_March 22nd_.--The Pasha, with Mr. Marco, paid a visit to Mpigwa, chief of Nyamsassi, and were well received, returning with large gifts of food.

_March 23rd_.--Contributions of provisions have come in from many chiefs to-day as an expression of gratitude for the retaliatory raid on Melindwa.

_March 26th_.--Yesterday afternoon the steamer _Nyanza_ came in with the mails from Wadelai, and carriers came in this morning with them.

Selim Bey writes from Wadelai to the Pasha that he is sure all the rebels will follow him, and that they may be expected at our camp. The Pasha, beaming with joy, came to me and imparted this news, and said, “What did I tell you? You see I was right? I was sure they would all come.”

[Sidenote: 1889.

March 26.

Kavalli’s.]

Let us see what this good news amounts to.

Selim Bey left our camp on the 26th February with a promise that I should wait “a reasonable time.” Though the distance is only five days, we will give him eight days. He arrives at Wadelai on the 4th March. He promised solemnly to begin embarking as soon as possible. We will grant him five days for this, considering that such people have no idea of time, and eight days for the voyage from Wadelai to our Lake camp. He should then have arrived on the 17th inst. He has not appeared yet, and in his letters to the Pasha he only states that his intentions are what they were on the 26th February last, viz., to start.

On the 14th of March Shukri Agha, commandant of Mswa, appeared to obtain instructions from the Pasha, and on the 17th Shukri Agha was back again at Mswa station, having received an order to abandon that station and to be here on the 27th. We are now told that Shukri Agha is still at Mswa, and Selim Bey still at Wadelai, and that every order issued by the Pasha has been disregarded, and every promise broken.

I replied to the Pasha that I was only aware of our folly in relying on any promise made by such people, that neither Selim Bey nor probably Shukri Agha had any intention of accompanying us anywhere. Days had passed into weeks, and weeks had grown into months, and years would doubtless elapse before we should leave Africa.

“I must beg leave, Pasha, to impress on you that, besides my duty to you and to your people, I have a duty to perform to the Relief Committee. Every month I stay in Africa costs about £400. I have a duty to perform to my officers. They have their careers in the army to think of--their leave of absence has long ago expired. Then we must think of the Zanzibaris. They will want to return to their homes; they are already waxing impatient. If we had only some proof that Selim Bey and his men had any real intention of leaving Africa, and would furnish this proof by sending a couple of companies of soldiers, and I could see that the soldiers were under control, there would be no difficulty in staying some months more. But if you think that from the 1st of May, 1888, to the end of March, 1889, are eleven months, and that we have been only able to get about forty officers and clerks and their families, and that the baggage of these has required all the carriers on this plateau one month to carry it two days’ march, you will perceive that I have no reason to share in your joy.

“I pray you also to remember, that I have been at great pains to get at the correct state of mind which those officers at Wadelai are in. I have been told most curious things. Major Awash Effendi, of the 2nd Battalion, Osman Latif Effendi, Mohamed the engineer, have told me secretly that neither Selim Bey or Fadl-el-Mulla Bey will leave for Egypt. The former may perhaps come as far as here and settle in this district. But whatever the Wadelai officers may profess to be desirous of doing, I have been warned that I must be on my guard. Nobody places any faith in them except yourself. While believing that you may perhaps be right after all, you must admit that I have the best of reasons for doubting their good intentions. They have revolted three times against you. They captured Mr. Jephson, and in menacing him with rifles they insulted me. They have made it known widely enough that they intended to capture me on my return here. But, Pasha, let me tell you this much: it is not in the power of all the troops of the province to capture me, and before they arrive within rifle-shot of this camp, every officer will be in my power.”

“But what answer shall I give them?” asked the Pasha.

“You had better hear it from the officers yourself. Come, without saying a word to them. I will call them here and ask them in your presence, because they are involved in the question as much as I am myself.”

“Very well,” he replied.

[Sidenote: 1889.

March 26.

Kavalli’s.]

A messenger was sent to summon the officers, Stairs, Nelson, Jephson, and Parke, and when they were seated I addressed them:--

“Gentlemen,--Before giving me the benefit of your advice at this
important period, let me sum up some facts as they have transpired.

“Emin Pasha has received a mail from Wadelai. Selim Bey, who left
the post below here on the 26th February last, with a promise that
he would hurry up such people as wished to go to Egypt, writes from
Wadelai that the steamers are engaged in transporting some people
from Dufflé to Wadelai, that the work of transport between Wadelai
and Tunguru will be resumed upon the accomplishment of the other
task. When he went away from here, we were informed that he was
deposed, and that Emin Pasha and he were sentenced to death by the
rebel officers. We now learn that the rebel officers, ten in
number, and all their faction, are desirous of proceeding to Egypt;
we may suppose, therefore, that Selim Bey’s party is in the
ascendant again.

“Shukri Agha, the chief of the Mswa Station--the station nearest to
us--paid us a visit there in the middle of March. He was informed
on the 16th of March, the day that he departed, that our departure
for Zanzibar would positively begin on the 10th of April. He took
with him urgent letters for Selim Bey, announcing that fact in
unmistakable terms.

“Eight days later we hear that Shukri Agha is still at Mswa, having
only sent a few women and children to the Nyanza Camp; yet he and
his people might have been here by this if they intended to
accompany us.

“Thirty days ago Selim Bey left us with a promise of a reasonable
time. The Pasha thought once that twenty days would be a reasonable
time. However, we have extended it to forty-four days. Judging by
the length of time Selim Bey has already taken, only reaching
Tunguru with one-sixteenth of the expected force, I personally am
quite prepared to give the Pasha my decision. For you must know,
gentlemen, that the Pasha having heard from Selim Bey ‘intelligence
so encouraging,’ wishes to know my decision, but I have preferred
to call you to answer for me.

“You are aware that our instructions were to carry relief to Emin
Pasha, and to escort such as were willing to accompany us to Egypt.
We arrived at the Nyanza, and met Emin Pasha in the latter part of
April, 1888, just twelve months ago. We handed him his letters from
the Khedive and his Government, and also the first instalment of
relief, and asked him whether we were to have the pleasure of his
company to Zanzibar. He replied that his decision depended on that
of his people.

“This was the first adverse news that we received. Instead of
meeting with a number of people only too anxious to leave Africa,
it was questionable whether there would be any except a few
Egyptian clerks. With Major Barttelot so far distant in the rear,
we could not wait at the Nyanza for his decision, as that might
possibly require months; it would be more profitable to seek and
assist the rear column, and by the time we arrived here again,
those willing to go to Egypt would be probably impatient to start.
We, therefore, leaving Mr. Jephson to convey our message to the
Pasha’s troops, returned to the forest region for the rear column,
and in nine months were back again on the Nyanza. But instead of
discovering a camp of people anxious and ready to depart from
Africa, we found no camp at all, but hear that both the Pasha and
Mr. Jephson are prisoners, that the Pasha has been in imminent
danger of his life from the rebels, and at another time is in
danger of being bound on his bedstead and taken to the interior of
Makkaraka country. It has been current talk in the Province that we
were only a party of conspirators and adventurers, that the letters
of the Khedive and Nubar Pasha were forgeries, concocted by the
vile Christians, Stanley and Casati, assisted by Mohammed Emin
Pasha. So elated have the rebels been by their bloodless victory
over the Pasha and Mr. Jephson, that they have confidently boasted
of their purpose to entrap me by cajoling words, and strip our
Expedition of every article belonging to it, and send us adrift
into the wilds to perish. We need not dwell on the ingratitude of
these men, or on their intense ignorance and evil natures, but you
must bear in mind the facts to guide you to a clear decision.

“We believed when we volunteered for this work that we should be
met with open arms. We were received with indifference, until we
were lead to doubt whether any people wished to depart. My
representative was made a prisoner, menaced with rifles, threats
were freely used. The Pasha was deposed, and for three months was a
close prisoner. I am told this is the third revolt in the Province.
Well, in the face of all this, we have waited nearly twelve months
to obtain the few hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children in
this camp. As I promised Selim Bey and his officers that I would
give a reasonable time, Selim Bey and his officers repeatedly
promised to us there should be no delay. The Pasha has already
fixed April 10th, which extended their time to forty-four days,
sufficient for three round voyages for each steamer. The news
brought to-day is not that Selim Bey is close to here, but that he
has not started from Wadelai yet.

“In addition to his own friends, who are said to be loyal and
obedient to him, he brings the ten rebel officers, and some six
hundred or seven hundred soldiers, their faction.

“Remembering the three revolts which these same officers have
inspired, their pronounced intentions against this Expedition,
their plots and counterplots, the life of conspiracy and smiling
treachery they have led, we may well pause to consider what object
principally animates them now--that from being ungovernably
rebellious against all constituted authority, they have suddenly
become obedient and loyal soldiers of the Khedive and his ‘Great
Government.’ You must be aware that, exclusive of the thirty-one
boxes of ammunition delivered to the Pasha by us in May, 1888, the
rebels possess ammunition of the Provincial Government equal to
twenty of our cases. We are bound to credit them with intelligence
enough to perceive that such a small supply would be fired in an
hour’s fighting among so many rifles, and that only a show of
submission and apparent loyalty will ensure a further supply from
us. Though the Pasha brightens up each time he obtains a plausible
letter from these people, strangers like we are may also be
forgiven for not readily trusting those men whom they have such
good cause to mistrust. Could we have some guarantee of good faith,
there could be no objection to delivering to them all they
required: that is, with the permission of the Pasha. Can we be
certain, however, that if we admit them into this camp as good
friends and loyal soldiers of Egypt, they will not rise up some
night and possess themselves of all the ammunition, and so deprive
us of the power of returning to Zanzibar? It would be a very easy
matter for them to do so, after they had acquired the knowledge of
the rules of the camp. With our minds filled with Mr. Jephson’s
extraordinary revelations of what has been going on in the Province
since the closing of the Nile route, beholding the Pasha here
before my very eyes, who was lately supposed to have several
thousands of people under him, but now without any important
following, and bearing in mind the ‘cajoling’ and ‘wiles’ by which
we were to be entrapped, I ask you, would we be wise in extending
the time of delay beyond the date fixed, that is, the 10th of
April?”

The officers one after another replied in the negative.

“There, Pasha,” I said, “you have your answer. We march on the 10th of April.”

The Pasha then asked if we could “in our conscience acquit him of having abandoned his people,” supposing they had not arrived by the 10th of April. We replied, “Most certainly.”

_March 27th_.--The couriers have left to embark for Wadelai.

They bore the following:

Notice to Selim Bey and the Rebel Officers.

Camp at Kavalli, _March 26th_, 1889.

“Salaams,--The Commander of the Relief Expedition having promised
to grant a reasonable time for the arrival of such people at this
camp as were desirous to quit the country, notifies Selim Bey and
his brother officers that this is the 30th day since they departed
from the Nyanza Camp for Wadelai to assemble their people.

“The ‘reasonable time’ promised to them has expired to-day.

“However, as the Pasha has requested an extension of time, it is
hereby notified to all concerned that the Expedition will make a
further halt at this camp of fourteen days from this date, or, in
other words, that the Expedition will positively commence the march
toward Zanzibar on the morning of the TENTH OF APRIL next. All
those people not arriving by that date must abide the consequences
of their absence on the day of our departure.

“HENRY M. STANLEY.”

Notice to Shukri Agha, Commanding Mswa.

“The Commander of the Relief Expedition hereby announces to the
good and loyal officer Shukri Agha, that in order to allow him
sufficient time to reach this camp, the Expedition will make a
further halt of fourteen days from this date, at this camp, but
that on the morning of the tenth day of April next, no matter who
or who may not be ready to march on that date, positively no
further delay will be granted.

“The Commander of the Expedition, out of sincere affection for
Shukri Agha, begs that he will take this last notice into his
earnest consideration, and act accordingly,

“HENRY M. STANLEY.”