"April 29.The Englishmen set up their forge and anvil; and we commenced unloading corrugated iron sheets to form our magazines. Fortunately, I had a number of wall-plates, rafters, &c., that I had brought from Egypt for this purpose, as there is no straight wood in the country.
"The sheik or head of the Shillook tribe sent envoys with a present of four bullocks and two small tusks, with a message that he wished to see me, but he was afraid to come. I accordingly sent the messengers back in the No. 8 steamer with ten soldiers as an escort to bring him to my station.
"April 30.We commenced erecting the iron magazines. Lieutenant Baker, Mr. Higginbotham, and the Englishmen all actively employed, while Raouf Bey and his officers, instead of attending to the pressing work of forming the permanent camp, sit under a tree and smoke and drink coffee throughout the day.
"The artillerymen are nearly all ill; likewise many of the Egyptian regiment, while the black troops are well and in excellent spirits. There is no doubt that for this service the blacks are very superior to the Egyptians: these are full of religious prejudices combined with extreme ignorance, and they fall sick when deprived of the vegetable diet to which they are accustomed in Egypt.
"In the evening the steamer returned with the true Shillook king, accompanied by two of his wives, four daughters, and a retinue of about seventy people."
CHAPTER IV
THE CAMP AT TEWFIKEEYAH
"May 1.The camp is beginning to look civilized. Already the underwood has been cleared, and the large trees which border the river have their separate proprietors. There is no home like a shady tree in a tropical climate; here we are fortunate in having the finest mimosas, which form a cool screen. I have apportioned the largest trees among the higher officers. The English quarter of the camp is already arranged, and the whole force is under canvas. A few days ago this was a wilderness; now there are some hundred new tents arranged in perfectly straight rows so as to form streets. This extensive plot of white tents, occupying a frontage of four hundred yards, and backed by the bright green forest, looks very imposing from the river.
"The English quarter was swept clean, and as the surface soil on the margin of the river was a hard white sand, the place quickly assumed a neat and homely appearance. I had a sofa, a few chairs, and a carpet arranged beneath a beautiful shady mimosa, where I waited the arrival of the true king of the ShillooksQuat Kare.
"In a few minutes he was introduced by an aide-de-camp, accompanied by two wives, four daughters, and a large retinue. Like all the Shillooks, he was very tall and thin. As his wardrobe looked scanty and old, I at once gave him a long blue shirt which nearly reached to his ankles, together with an Indian red scarf to wear as a waistband. When thus attired I presented him with a tarboosh (fez); all of which presents he received without a smile or the slightest acknowledgment. When dressed with the assistance of two or three of the soldiers who had volunteered to act as valets, he sat down on the carpet, upon which he invited his family to sit near him. There was a profound silence. The king appeared to have no power of speech; he simply fixed his eyes upon myself and my wife; then slowly turned them upon Lieutenant Baker and the officers in attendance. The crowd was perfectly silent.
"I was obliged to commence the conversation by asking him `whether he was really Quat Kare, the old king of the Shillooks? as I had heard his death reported.'
"Instead of replying, he conferred with one of his wives, a woman of about sixty, who appeared to act as prime minister and adviser. This old lady immediately took up the discourse, and very deliberately related the intrigues of the Koordi governor of Fashoda, which had ended in the ruin of her husband. It appeared that the Koordi did not wish that peace should reign throughout the land. The Shillooks were a powerful tribe, numbering upwards of a million, therefore it was advisable to sow dissension amongst them, and thus destroy their unity. Quat Kare was a powerful king, who had ruled the country for more than fifty years. He was the direct descendant of a long line of kings; therefore he was a man whose influence was to be dreaded. The policy of the Koordi determined that he would overthrow the power of Quat Kare, and after having vainly laid snares for his capture, the old king fled from the governor of Fashoda as David fled from Saul and hid in the cave of Adullam. The Koordi was clever and cunning in intrigue; thus, he wrote to Djiaffer Pacha, the governor-general of the Soudan, and declared that Quat Kare the king of the Shillooks was DEAD; it was therefore necessary to elect the next heir, Jangy for whom he requested the firman of the Khedive. The firman of the Khedive arrived in due course for the pretender Jangy, who was a distant connexion of Quat Kare, and in no way entitled to the succession. This intrigue threw the country into confusion. Jangy was proclaimed king by the Koordi, and was dressed in a scarlet robe with belt and sabre. The pretender got together a large band of adherents who were ready for any adventure that might yield them plunder. These natives, who knew the paths and the places where the vast herds of cattle were concealed, acted as guides to the Koordi; and the faithful adherents of the old king, Quat Kare, were plundered, oppressed, and enslaved without mercy, until the day that I had fortunately arrived in the Shillook country, and caught the Koordi in the very act of kidnapping.
"I had heard this story a few days before, and I was much struck with the clear and forcible manner in which the old wife described the history.
"Here we have an average picture of Soudan rule. In a country blessed with the most productive soil and favourable climate, with a population estimated at above a million, the only step towards improvement, after seven years of possession, is a system of plunder and massacre. Instead of peace, a series of intrigues have thrown the country into hopeless anarchy. With a good government, this fertile land might produce enormous wealth in the cultivation of corn and cotton. I arranged with the king that he should wait patiently, and that I would bring the affair before the proper authority; in the mean time, his people should return to their villages.
"After a feast upon an ox, and the entertainment of the magnetic battery and the wheel of life, I gave Quat Kare, and the various members of his family, an assortment of presents, and sent them back rejoicing in the No. 8 steamer. I had been amused by the stoical countenance of the king while undergoing a severe shock from the battery. Although every muscle of his arms was quivering, he never altered the expression of his features. One of his wives followed his example, and resisted a shock with great determination, and after many attempts she succeeded in extracting a necklace from a basin of water so highly charged, that her hand was completely cramped and paralysed.
"I have thoroughly gained the confidence of the natives, as vast herds of cattle are now fearlessly brought to graze on the large island opposite the camp. The natives assure me that all the male children that may be born this year will be called the `Pacha,' in commemoration of the release given to the captives.
"A soldier was caught this afternoon in the act of stealing a fowl from a native. I had him flogged and secured in irons for five days. I have determined upon the strictest discipline, in spite of the old prejudice. As the greater portion of the Egyptian regiment is composed of felons, convicted of offences in Cairo, and transported to the White Nile, my task is rather difficult in establishing a reformation. The good taste of the authorities might be questioned for supplying me with a regiment of convicts to carry out an enterprise where a high state of discipline and good conduct are essential to success."