ins: the shots he went out, and found the Soudanese
standing in line with their guns pointed at him.
They told him to go, or they would fire. He asked
them what the matter was, and they said that they
had got bad news (khabar batal), and were going
away. They then fired more shots, and went off at
a dead run.
I got my men together and pursued them, but to
no purpose. They did not take the main road to the
river, but ran among the bushes; so after having
looked for them a couple of hours I returned.
I was greatly perplexed ; the desertions of both
porters and Soudanese were effected suddenly, and
no reason assigned. If the Soudanese had intended
at first to desert, why had they, three of them at
least, when the porters were drawn up in the line
before the zeriba, stood behind me and expressed
willingness to assist me in every way? The Soudanese,
too, had come all the way from Massowa, and
they knew perfectly well it would be impossible for
them to collect pay by any means at Zanzibar; but,
on the contrary, it was more probable that the Italian
consul would imprison them immediately upon their
arrival at that place.
Now that the Soudanese had joined the porters, I
thought it probable that we should receive a visit
from the deserters in a body. Hamidi had not sent
word since his final departure; but it was possible
that while in camp he might have had some communication
with the Soudanese; and now that my force
in the zeriba was so reduced, it was quite on the
cards that the deserters might return and destroy
all evidence of their desertion by putting us out of
the way. About 3 p .m . on the day that the Soudanese
deserted, I was seated in a straw shed I had had
built outside of the zeriba, when I saw a man wearing
a blue coat, such as those worn by my Soudanese,
coming hurriedly towards the zeriba. He
proved to be a Soudanese, named Hussein Mahomet.
My first thought was to kill him. I dashed at him,
seized him by the throat with my right hand, and
with my left wrenched his Mannlicher from him, and
cocked it. He fell upon his knees, and stammered
out the* word “ khabar,” which means news. Thank
Heaven he spoke; for the tone of his voice brought
me to myself, and stayed my hand. I took him inside
of my shed, and then had some of the Somali
called, who were conversant with Arabic.
The intelligence he gave was as follows. The preceding
night I had called Mahomet Aman (the head
of the Somali) to me, and told him to make ready
the chains; for it was my intention, if the deserters
returned, and behaved in a refractory manner, to bind
the ringleaders at once. One of the Soudanese was
on duty near by, and heard some of the talk. His
guilty conscience (for I felt sure the Soudanese knew
of the plan of the porters, if they did not assist in
its consummation) made him think I was going to
chain up the Soudanese. They talked over the
matter during the night, but did not mention it to
Ramazan; for they one and all hated him, owing to
the fact that he was their chief, and had forced them
to maintain a certain amount of discipline. Early
the following morning, when Mahomet Aman set to