“ he had been anxious to see the white man who did not
steal cattle, neither kidnap slaves, but that I should do
no good in that country, as the traders did not wish
me to remain.” He told me “ that all people were bad,
both nativès and traders, and that force was necessary
in this country.” I tried to discover whether he had
any respect for good and upright conduct. “ Yes,” he
said; “ all people say that you are different to the
Turks and traders, but that character will not help
you ; it is all very good and very right, but you see
your men have all deserted, thus you must go back to
Khartoum ; you can do nothing here without plenty of
men and guns.” I proposed to him my plan of riding
quickly through the Bari tribe to Moir ; he replied,
“ Impossible ! If I were to beat the great nogàras (drums),
and call my people together to explain who you were,
they would not hurt you ; but there are many petty
chiefs who' do not obey me, and their people would
certainly attack you when crossing some swollen
. torrent, and what could you do with only a man and
a boy ? ”
His reply to my question concerning the value of
beads corroborated Richam’s statement ; nothing could
be purchased for anything but cattle; the traders had
commenced the system of stealing herds of cattle from
òhe tribe to barter with the next neighbour ; thus the
i entire country was in anarchy and confusion, and beads ¡
I were of no value. My plan for a dash through th e ,
country was impracticable. .
I therefore called my vakeel’, and threatened him
with the gravest punishment on my return to Khartoum.
I wrote to Sir R. Colquhoun, H.M. Consul-
General for Egypt, which letter I sent by one of the
return boats; and I explained to my vakeel that the .
complaint to the British authorities would end in his
imprisonment, and that in case of my death through
violence he would be assuredly hanged. After fright-
■ him thoroughly, I suggested that he should
induce some of the mutineers, who were Dongolowas
(his own tribe), many of whom were his relatives, to
accompany me, in which case I would forgive them,
their past misconduct.
In the course of the afternoon he returned with the
news, that he had arranged with seventeen of the men, Ibut that they refused to march towards the south, and
would accompany me fo the east if I wished to explore
that part of the country. Their plea for refusing a
southern route was the hostility of the Bari tribe.
They also proposed a condition, that I should “ leave
all my transport animals and baggage behind
me.”
To this insane request, which completely nullified