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Updated: April 30, 2025
As they neared the port a small launch was seen coming out. An officer soon came on board. "You are to go down the coast to Trinkitat," he said to the captain. "The transports have gone down there, that is to be the base of operations." The officers clustered round the new-comer to learn the news. "You have been more lucky than the 19th," he said.
The fort they had constructed near Trinkitat had done much to help the rapid and successful advance upon Tokar; and now the zereba they had made eight miles out from Suakim, and in the direction in which Osman Digna lay with his whole army, made a good first halting-place for the English troops.
Trinkitat harbour was in full view, and an energetic ship there, seeing the Arabs' position thus indicated, tried to throw shells amongst them. But they, too, were out of range. Only, as shells when properly constructed burst somewhere, and these were sent over the heads of friends, their exploding short was dangerous, and after two or three attempts the experiment was dropped.
The troops bivouacked outside Tokar, where nothing further occurred of any interest, and shortly afterwards they tramped back to the wells at El Teb, and so to Trinkitat, where they were re-embarked as quickly as might be, and steamed round to Suakim, which now became the base of operations.
It was expected that by the following morning some of the infantry would cross the lagoon and occupy a battery which General Baker had thrown up there to cover his landing, for Trinkitat had been the spot from which he too had advanced to relieve Tokar, and the scene of the conflict in which his force had been destroyed would probably be crossed by the British in their advance.
"Perhaps your captain had not your appreciation of wit," replied Tom. "Wit, indeed! You call your bad puns wit, do you?" Next day the rest of the troops marched in from Trinkitat, and bivouacked outside the fort. They had made a fair start, and commenced the campaign now, and the novelty of eating their evening meal in the open, by the light of a bonfire, had a charm for some of the young ones.
For they did not anchor in Trinkitat harbour till it was too late to land that night. The delay caused a last rise to be taken out of poor Green, or rather a final allusion to a long-standing one.
"What is the name of this white chief, your Majesty?" I asked, deeply interested. "King Luck," answered Trinkitat; "but I thought you came from him." "That is not so, O king," I replied. "These rubies are magic rubies that are found only in a valley guarded by serpents.
King Trinkitat possessed no chart of the place to which his ships traded, as the captains of his vessels mostly steered by the stars. But he promised me that, if ever I should again visit his island, he would send a pilot with me to conduct me to King Luck. Mahomet Achmet, with whom I parted the best of friends, expressed the hope that we would one day meet again.
Fort Baker was about three miles from Trinkitat harbour; it was erected by Baker Pasha on the second of the month which was now drawing to a close, that is the February of 1884, when he was in command of the Egyptian army which was cut to pieces by the Arabs on the fifth.
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