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Updated: June 19, 2025
There was no person who would have enjoyed my success so much as that worthy man. It is now time to speak of Suleiman and the party who had left Masindi on 23rd May with the post for Fatiko, together with the 300 Unyoro carriers who were to have transported Abdullah's detachment to Foweera.
The fact was, that the Lobores had wished on the previous day to take me to Farragenia, which is two days nearer than Fatiko. Had I been ignorant of the country, we should have been deceived. I steered through low open forest, the leaves of which had been scorched off by the fire that had cleared the country. Neither a village nor the print of a human foot could be seen.
The subsequent conduct of Kabba Rega had proved this accusation, and M'tese had heard with rage and dismay that I had been forced to burn all the numerous goods, which otherwise would have passed to him in Uganda. On the 25th December the fort of Fatiko was completed.
The reports of the vast pastoral wealth of the Umiro excited the cupidity of the various companies in the stations of Abou Saood. It was determined to make a grand attack upon a people, who, in spite of their warlike character, had exhibited a total want of power to resist. Ali Hussein sent an expedition of about 350 men, in addition to a large number of Fatiko allies.
I should thus be deceived, and be left at Masindi, 160 miles distant from my detachment at Fatiko, without the power of communication. At 8.30 A.M. we were in the saddle, and started from Foweera. Suleiman came to kiss my hand at my departure. We rode at once into the low forest, and as the last man of our party disappeared from view, Suleiman returned to his zareeba.
I had taken under my especial protection a number of Bari women and young girls whom Wat-el-Mek and Tayib Agha had pressed into their service to carry loads during their journey from Gondokoro to Fatiko.
He was afraid to enter my camp without a second assurance in writing that he should not be made prisoner. Of course he swore that he had not given orders to fire at me; and he declared that his people of Fatiko had only fired because they were afraid that the natives who had accompanied me were about to attack them.
If a native travels through wilderness, he will always make forced marches, thus the Fatikos would only sleep one night upon the road of seventy-eight miles when on the return journey. On the following morning, we were rather late in starting, as more women arrived with food, and certain farewells took place. The Fatiko natives appeared to be very superior to the Lobore, as not one man absconded.
With 146 men, I could not take more than eighty men to act against 600, as the small force of sixty-six would be the minimum that I could leave to protect the Fatiko station. It would be impossible for eighty men to fight, and to secure at the same time the 600 stand of arms that would be in the hands of the rebels.
Notwithstanding the fatigue of the ceremony, I took a great fancy to these poor people. They had prepared a quantity of merissa and a sheep for our lunch, which they begged us to remain and enjoy before we started; but the pumping action of half a village not yet gratified by a presentation was too much, and mounting our oxen with aching shoulders we bade adieu to Fatiko.
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