CHAP. III.] 
PARLEY WITH MUTINEERS. 
133 
entire country was in anarchy and confusion, and beads 
were of no value. My plan for a dash through the 
country was impracticable. 
I therefore called my vakeel, and threatened him 
with the gravest punishment on my return to Khar¬ 
toum. I wrote to Sir R. Colquhoun, H.M. Consul- 
General for Egypt, which letter I sent by one of the 
return boats; and I explained to my vakeel that the 
complaint to the British authorities would end in his 
imprisonment, and that in case of my death through 
violence he would be assuredly hanged. After fright¬ 
ening him thoroughly, I suggested that he should 
induce some of the mutineers, who were Dongolowas 
(his own tribe), many of whom were his relatives, to 
accompany me, in which case I would forgive them 
their past misconduct. 
In the course of the afternoon he returned with the 
news, that he had arranged with seventeen of the men, 
but that they refused to march towards the south, and 
would accompany me to the east if I wished to explore 
that part of the country. Their plea for refusing a 
southern route was the hostility of the Bari tribe. 
They also proposed a condition, that I should “ leave 
all my transport animals and baggage behind 
me” 
To this insane request, which completely nullified 
