The horrible state of the White Nile had prevented all possibility of conveying camels from Khartoum. My carts and camel harness were prepared, but the invaluable animals could not be transported. I was thus dependent upon such rotten reeds as native promises.
No one who is inexperienced in African travel can realize the hopeless position of being left with a mass of material without any possibility of transporting it.
The traveller may sit upon his box until he stiffens into a monument of patience and despair, but the box will not move without a carrier. There is only one method of travelling successfully, and this necessitates the introduction of transport animals, where the baggage is heavy and upon an extensive scale.
I felt perfectly helpless. My colonel, Abd-el-Kader, advised me to seize the sheik, Bedden, and to tie him up until his people should have delivered all the effects at Lobore.
This I might have done, but it might also have occasioned war, which would prevent the possibility of securing carriers. I should also incur the responsibility of having provoked the war by an act which, although necessary, could hardly be justified according to civilized ideas.
I had very little hope, but I had so frequently seen a sudden ray of good fortune when all had looked dark and cloudy, that I went to bed at night trusting that something might turn up in our favour to-morrow.
On 29th January, 1872, Pittia returned with bad news. Bedden had sent me a laconic message that "he should not call again, and that his people declined to carry the baggage."
Pittia explained that the natives had all left the neighbourhood together with their sheik, therefore it would be well not to allow the soldiers to stray far from camp.
This was the gross ingratitude exhibited by Bedden and his people. Not only had I scrupulously respected all their property, but I had even placed sentries over their tobacco gardens to prevent the possibility of theft.
The absence of the women and children had been a certain sign of ill-will.