THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 271 



the punishment circumstances offered, and accordingly attempted 

 to destroy Baker by a sudden and impetuous attack. A big 

 battle was the result, in which, however, Abou Saood was com- 

 pletely routed, and nearly all his officers and half of his fighting 

 force were slain. 



THE CANNIBALS. 



ABOU SAOOD escaped with a few of his men and changed his 

 headquarters to Fabbo, a village nearly twenty-five miles east of 

 Fatiko. Here he collected a large quantity of ivory and then 

 started for the Makkarika country, two hundred and fifty miles 

 distant, to secure carriers that would assist him in removing the 

 ivory and resisting any attack that might be made upon him. 



Baker's force, small when he entered the country, had been 

 diminished by deaths in battle and from sickness until not more 

 than two hundred remained, all told, who could be relied upon in 

 a fight. Even this number was divided to garrison Fatiko, while 

 sixty were left at Foweera with Rionga, so that there was con- 

 stant danger of annihilation should combined attacks be made 

 by the natives upon the scattered forces. He considered well 

 his position and therefore sent a small party back to Gondokoro 

 for a reinforcement of two hundred men, with instructions to 

 bring some milch cows. 



When Abou Saood left Fabbo the natives began to enlist 

 under the government standard, and therefore, when news came 

 that a large body of the Arab slave-hunters, including three 

 thousand Makkarika cannibals, had arrived on the Nile from the 

 far west to take the ivory, the people of Fabbo became very 

 much alarmed; this alarm was greatly increased by a second 

 report that the cannibals had reached the Koshi country, which 

 was separated from the Madi, in which Fabbo was situated, only 

 by the Nile river. 



Every day people arrived at Fatiko with horrible reports of the 

 cannibals, who were devouring the children in the Koshi district. 

 Spies went across the river and brought every intelligence. . It 

 appeared that the three thousand Makkarikas had been engaged 

 by All Emmeen under the pretense that they were to go to Fatiko 



