The natives had carried off their dead, with the exception of the body that had been cleaned by the vultures; this must have been a stranger who had no friends, as the Baris are very particular in the interment of their people.
I now marched my men along the high ground towards the south, and examined the numerous habitations, until I arrived at a little colony comprising six villages, all of which were full of corn. Here I left Major Abdullah and his detachment, with orders to collect all the dhurra from the neighbouring villages, and to form a central depot at his present station, after which, the corn could be thrashed out and carried to the vessels. I stationed a noggur by the bank exactly opposite his position, about half a mile distant.
The natives had abandoned the neighbourhood: and hundreds of villages remained without an inhabitant.
On 3rd November, I sent off vessels heavily laden with corn to Gondokoro, under the command of Lieutenant Baker, with instructions that the detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Achmet should join me as soon as possible, and that empty vessels should at once be sent to my corn depot.
On 4th November, I sent fifteen of the "Forty Thieves" to the south, where I had discovered large quantities of corn in the villages that had been until now undisturbed. To arrive at these villages, it was necessary to pass over very high ground, which obscured them from our view when on the diahbeeah.
My men had built themselves huts, and had formed a nice little camp, on the hard, stony bank, close to the spot where my diahbeeah and other vessels lay alongside. My horses were picketed in the centre, and we had transported and erected a great number of granaries, which I had filled with cleanly-thrashed corn, to await the arrival of the return vessels from Gondokoro.
I was superintending the arrangements of the camp, when my attention was attracted by exceedingly steady firing in single shots at a distance, in the direction taken by my small party of "The Forty." Nothing could be seen, owing to the high ground on the south.
I immediately ordered my horse, and accompanied by Monsoor and three soldiers of "The Forty" I rode at a trot towards the direction of the firing. I had left a small guard with the boats, as nearly all the men were absent in the interior collecting the ` dhurra.
After riding for about a mile and a half over high ground covered with fine turf, from the summit of which I had a beautiful view of the undulating country before me, with the White Nile flowing through the valley, and high mountains in the distance, I came suddenly upon a village, where I observed two of my "Forty" mounted as sentries upon the summits of the tallest huts. A little in advance of this position, I found the remainder of my party. It appeared that they had been suddenly, attacked, but the sentries on the house-tops had given timely warning.
There could not have been a more suitable country for rifle-practice, as it was completely open and almost devoid of trees. The fine, swelling undulations were intersected with deep rocky ravines at right angles to the river, which after heavy rains brought down the torrents from the mountains.