A REBEL STRONGHOLD 



19 



at one time the " Cave of Adullam " of Eastern Equatorial 

 Africa, and thither flocked the worst of the runaway slaves, the 

 debtors, and the scum of the mongrel populations of the coast 

 towns. Under that leading scoundrel, the " Sultan of Witu," 

 they defied authority and tyrannised over the surrounding 

 country. The suppression of this nest of thieves was absolutely 

 essential to any peace or stability in the district. But Witu 

 was a strong town ; the approaches to it were unhealthy, and 

 the Sultan could bring 1000 guns into the field. It might 

 therefore have been long allowed to harbour its gang of ruffians 

 and freebooters, but for the massacre of a party of nine Germans 

 who visited the town in 1890, soon after the cession of the 

 Witu district by Germany to England in exchange for Heligo- 

 land. Being thus responsible for the good order of the country, 

 our government sent out a naval brigade, which easily defeated 

 the attack made on it by the Witu army, commanded by my 

 friend the Omari Mahdi. The town was shelled, and was set 

 on fire by a war rocket, which knocked a hole through a 

 great tree that stands beside the present entrance to the town. 

 The rebels withdrew into the forests inland, where they have 

 kept up a guerilla warfare ever since. Supplementary expedi- 

 tions have driven them from their settlements at Pumwani 

 and Jongeni, while Witu has been held by a garrison of Sepoys 

 and connected with the coast by a road and telephone. 



The latter had temporarily broken down, but communication 

 by it was resumed the day after our arrival, and the late Mr. 

 Bell Smith, the superintendent of the Melindi district, told us 

 that Harris and Mackinnon had landed with 145 men, and 

 would be at Ngatana on Christmas Eve. The plan at this 

 time was for all the reserve food of the expedition and most of 

 the heavy stores to be sent by sea in dhows to Kau, a town at 

 the head of the estuary of the Ozi ; they were there to be 

 transhipped into canoes, which were to carry them through the 

 Belezoni Canal (p. 31) to the Tana, and up this river to 

 Ngatana. The whole expedition was to assemble at this point, 

 and from it the real start was to be made. The Abyssinians 

 and Zanzibari were to reach Ngatana by marching up the right 

 or western bank of the Tana, and they were due there on 

 24th December. The baggage animals, the Somali, and the 

 Turks were to proceed via Witu and the left bank of the river. 



