The process of boiling the meat is very long; while it was being completed next morning I had time to explore the magnificent vegetation of the adjacent hill. The wild vine (Vitis Schimperi) was loaded with its ripe clusters and afforded me a refreshment to which I had been long unaccustomed. These grapes were less juicy than those that grow upon the vine-clad hills of Europe, and they left a somewhat harsh sensation upon the palate; but altogether, and especially in colour, they reminded me of our own growth. Towards the south-east I had a view of the hills of Babunga, about ten miles off on the frontier of the Babuckur territory.
BENDO.
All the huts in Bendo’s mbanga had been lately rebuilt in a style that displayed considerable taste, the tops of the straw-roofs being so much decorated that they looked like various specimens of ornamental basket-work. We were able to procure a good stock of maize, which made a welcome change from the uniformly bad bread which we had been eating previously for so long. Bendo himself was quite a character; his singularities amused me; he was a kind of fine gentleman, extremely particular about his toilette, and would never allow himself to be seen unless he had been carefully painted and adorned with his high-plumed hat.
I did some botanising on the hill of Gumango and found it full of interest. We next crossed the Rye, and proceeded to the adjacent villages of Gumba. Our camp was scarcely pitched there when a message was received from Mohammed instructing us to wait for him. On returning to his Seriba he had found that all the soldiers for whose fate he had been concerned, and whom he was hurrying off to rescue, had already arrived there safe and sound, having succeeded in breaking through the enemy and in carrying off their wounded. He was now returning to us with his full force. Pending his arrival we remained in Gumba’s villages for the two succeeding days.
He came back at the appointed time, and the recovery of the parted friends caused great joy and excitement in the caravan; innumerable were the questions asked, and no accumulation of answers seemed to allay the curiosity.
My own attention was very much engaged by the accounts given by Badry, the captain who had been appointed to the command of the corps in the place of Ahmed; I knew that his word was to be relied on, and his information was of great value to me as throwing light upon the geography of the country about the lower portions of rivers, some of which I had crossed only in their upper course and sometimes quite close to their fountain-heads.
I heard many details of the conflict between Mohammed’s party and the Niam-niam, the leading incidents of which I will now proceed briefly to relate.
It was while they were crossing one of the brooks overhung with the dense forests which now for so long I have designated as galleries that the fatal attack took place; the consternation of the defenceless bearers, and consequently the confusion of the whole party, would seem to have been very terrible. The first discharge of Niam-niam lances had strewn the ground with dead and wounded, the column of the unfortunate bearers furnishing the larger proportion of the victims. Previous to the attack not a native had been seen. Nothing could be more crafty than their ambush. Some of them had taken up their position behind the larger trees; some had concealed themselves in the middle of the bushes; whilst others, in order to get an aim from above, had ensconced themselves high up, contriving to lie full length upon the overhanging boughs where the network of creepers concealed them from the keenest vision. Badry’s recital brought vividly to my mind the battles with the Indians in the primeval forests of America, where similar stratagems have been continually resorted to.
The soldiers kept up their fire with energetic vigour; they are accustomed to carry a number of cartridges arranged like a girdle right round their waist, and having their ammunition thus conveniently at hand they kept up their discharges unintermittingly until they had collected their wounded; but the bodies of those who had been actually killed all fell into the hands of the assailants and were carried off without delay, all attempts at recovering them being utterly unavailing, because the irregularity of the ground prevented any organised plan of attack.
STANDING AN ASSAULT.