DESERTION AGAIN PEOPOSED. 



273 



wezi porter had been beaten at the well — stirred us up 

 and led the way to an open jungle about a mile distant. 

 There we were safe ; no assailant would place himself 

 upon the plain, the Coast-Arabs were close at hand, and 

 in the bush we should have been more than a match 

 for the Wagogo. 



The Baloch, fatigued by the tedious marches of the 

 last two days, had surlily refused their escort to our 

 luggage, as well as to ourselves. When the camp was 

 pitched, I ordered a goat to be killed ; and, serving out 

 rations to the sons of Ramji and the porters, I gave 

 them none, a cruel punishment to men whose souls 

 centered in their ingesta. The earlier part of the 

 evening was spent by them in enumerating their 

 grievances — they were careful to speak in four dialects, 

 so that all around might understand them, in discuss- 

 ing their plans of desertion, and in silencing the contra- 

 diction of their commander, the monocular Jemadar, 

 who, having forsworn opium, now headed the party in 

 opposition to the mutineers. They complained that they 

 were faint for want of meat — the fellows were driving a 

 bullock and half a dozen goat s, which they had purchased 

 with cloth, certainly not their own. I had, they grumbled, 

 given them no ghee or honey, consequently they were 

 obliged to "eat dry "-—they knew this to be false, as they 

 had received both at Kanyenye. We had made them 

 march ten " Cos " in our eagerness to obtain milk — -they 

 were the first to propose reaching a place where provisions 

 were procurable. The unmanageables, Khudabakhsh, 

 Shahdad, and Belok, proposed an immediate departure, 

 but a small majority carried the day in favour of deser- 

 tion next morning. Kidogo and the sons of Eamji 

 ridiculed, as was their wont, the silly boasters with, " Of 



VOL. i. T 



