The natives were hostile, and were particularly enraged when told that the country was to be annexed to Egypt. On the 26th of May the ceremony was performed that added many thousand miles of territory to the dominions of the Khedive.
A flagstaff eighty feet high had been erected. The whole military force, consisting of twelve hundred men with ten pieces of artillery, was marched out and formed in a square around the flagstaff.
The official proclamation was read, and as the last words were pronounced, the Ottoman flag was run up, the officers saluted with their swords, the infantry presented arms, and the artillery fired a salvo which woke the echoes of Gondokoro and the surrounding country. But the soldiers of the expedition had become discouraged, and the mutinous spirit among the men finally broke out in the shape of written protests signed by all the officers, except those belonging to “The Forty Thieves.”
These protests were to the effect that the officers and soldiers were weary of the expedition, and wished to return to Khartoum.
Fights with the natives became of almost daily occurrence, and some of them assumed the importance of battles. But the arrows and spears of the natives and the few muskets they had obtained from the traders, were no match for the rifles of the Egyptians, and the fights invariably resulted in the defeat of the savage. But the movements of the expedition were retarded, and the little camp at Gondokoro was kept in a state of frequent alarm. Though the rebellious officers were silenced, their feelings were unchanged, and they did not rush eagerly into the fight when the bugle called to arms.
Still Baker persevered, and by his bravery and indomitable