"Suleiman and Eddrees were to be brought before me.
"A heavy shower fell just after the troops started.
"April 14.—Julian's horse, Gazelle, died last night; the poor animal had been ill for some days.
"Quonga, who is the sheik of this district, came this morning and excused his absence in rather a lame fashion, by saying that he had been collecting food for the troops, together with carriers, who are now ready to transport the baggage to Masindi. He declared that Kabba Rega was impatient, and had sent three of Suleiman's people to deliver the message to me, but these rascals had passed on this morning direct to the zareeba of Suleiman, without communicating with us on the way.
"Quonga not only corroborated the testimony of the sheiks and the dragoman, Umbogo, against Suleiman, as having conspired to attack Rionga after my departure, but he gave additional evidence, that 'Suleiman had told Rahonka and the great sheiks that I, the Pacha, knew nothing about war, that none of the government troops could shoot, and that I should only travel and subsist upon the country, but that he (Suleiman) would join them and kill Rionga after I should have departed.'
"This I believe to be true, as a few days ago, when speaking of the troops, I told Suleiman that the Soudanis were very hardy soldiers for marching and resisting climate, but that generally they were bad shots. Thus, in a treacherous manner, he has informed the natives that the soldiers of the government cannot shoot. In the afternoon, fresh reports reached me that Suleiman had, with his own hands, murdered the native to whom I had given protection. He had committed this horrible act the instant that my back was turned, and he had exhibited the crime before the great sheiks in derision of my authority!
"At 4.30 P.M. Captain Mohammed Deii returned with his party of fifty men, together with the vakeels, Suleiman and Eddrees, with six of their men who had been met upon their road from Masindi, and eight slaves.
"As I had expected, the greater number of Suleiman's people had escaped with their slaves to Fabbo, when the Colonel, Abd-el-Kader, had suddenly appeared among them; his arrival had disconcerted all Suleiman's arrangements, and my detention at Kisoona had completely upset all his plans respecting an alliance with Rahonka's army. That cunning general had gone off straight to Kabba Rega after his escape through the wall of his hut.
"I summoned the great sheiks, Kittakara, Quonga, together with Pittia, and several others. These men gave their evidence most clearly as witnesses to the plan arranged by Suleiman for the attack upon Rionga; and as eye-witnesses to the murder of the prisoner, whom they saw dragged by Suleiman and his men to the grove of bananas, where he was beheaded.
"I ordered Suleiman and his people to be disarmed; and secured both him and Eddrees in shebas.