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A short time before the arrival of Suleiman, an extraordinary incident had occurred at the Fatiko camp. One morning, when the bugles blew the usual call, it was discovered that the prisoner Lazim had escaped, although he had been secured in irons. Fortunately, it had rained slightly during the night; thus it would not be difficult to track his footsteps.
Before he gave his report, he begged me "not to be angry." He then described that he had tracked Lazim's footsteps for a long way along the Fabbo road until he had at length met several natives, who were coming towards him. These men declared that they had met Lazim, who had managed to get rid of his irons; but as he was unarmed, they knew that he must have run away.
I therefore at once ordered him to be flogged. During the infliction of punishment, this fellow not only confessed that he had assisted in the escape of Lazim, but he made a clean breast of several other delinquencies. He was accordingly put in irons, and condemned to break stones for the new roads. In the evening Shooli returned, but without the prisoner.
The Pasha Khan makes his appearance without having taken the trouble to open the envelope. He is a dull-faced, unintellectual-lookiug personage, and without any preliminary palaver he says: "Bin bacalem," in a dictatorial tone of voice. "Bacalem yole lazim, bacalem saba," I reply, for it is too dark to ride on unknown ground this evening.
The Umiro had now become possessed of 103 guns and several large cases of cartridges, in addition to those in the pouches of the soldiers. Night favoured the retreat, and the remnant of the expedition under Lazim returned by forced marches to Fatiko.
I have already described this fellow Lazim as having been one of the ringleaders in the rebellion of the slave-hunters; and he was almost as notorious a character as Ali Hussein. He was originally himself a slave, and had escaped from his master at Khartoum many years ago, after which he became one of the most determined slave-hunters.
They accordingly asked him for his pass from me, as it was well known that I never allowed a man to go alone without a written order. Lazim of course was unable to produce a paper. The natives, therefore, insisted upon his returning with them to Fatiko, and upon his remonstrating they seized him. A struggle ensued, and they at length knocked him upon the head with au iron mace and killed him.
Taken by surprise, a panic seized the slave-hunters, very few of whom had time to fire their muskets before they were speared by the pitiless Umiro, who wreaked wholesale vengeance by the massacre of 103 of Abou Saood's men and about 150 of their allies. The main body under Lazim were completely cowed, as they feared an overwhelming attack that might exhaust their ammunition.
Upon arrival in the Umiro country, during the night after a forced march, he sent a detachment of 103 men, together with about 150 natives, to attack the villages by a surprise at dawn, and to capture the slaves and cattle in the usual manner. The party started at the early hour of first cock-crow, while the main body under Lazim waited for the result.
They arrived on the borders of Umiro, within about an hour's march of the villages doomed to pillage. The party was under the command of a notorious ruffian named Lazim, whom I had known during my former exploration.