400 
TEE RETREAT. 
[chap. xiv. 
Kionga, and Owine, the three hostile chiefs ; that they 
had received both ivory and slaves from them on con¬ 
dition that they should kill Kamrasi, thus according 
to the custom of the White Nile trade they had agreed 
to these conditions ;—they complained that it was very 
hard upon them to march six days through an unin¬ 
habited wilderness between their station at Faloro and 
Fo wo okas islands and to return empty handed. In 
reply I told them, that they should carry a letter from 
me to their vakeel Mahommed, in which I should give 
him twelve hours from the receipt of my order to re¬ 
cross the river with his entire party and their allies 
and quit Kamrasi’s country. 
They demurred to this alternative; but I shortly 
settled their objections, by ordering my vakeel to write 
the necessary letter, and desiring them to start before 
sunrise on the following morning. Kamrasi had been 
suspicious that I had sent for Mahommeds party 
to invade him because he had kept me starving at 
Shooa Moru instead of' forwarding me to Shooa as he 
had promised. This suspicion placed me in an awkward 
position; I therefore called M’Gambi (his brother) in 
presence of the Turks, and explained the whole affair 
face to face, desiring Mahommed’s people themselves 
to explain to him that they would retire from the 
country simply because I commanded them to do so, 
but that, had I not been there, they would have 
attacked him. This they repeated with a very bad 
grace, boasting, at the completion, that, were it not 
for me, they would shoot M’Gambi where he stood at 
that moment. The latter, fully aware of their good 
intentions, suddenly disappeared.My letter to 
Mahommed was delivered to Suleiman Choush, the. 
leader of' his party, and I ordered a sheep to be killed 
for their supper.At sunrise on the following 
morning they all departed, accompanied by six of my 
men, who were to bring a reply to my letter. These 
people had two donkeys, and just as they were starting, 
a crowd of natives made a rush to gather a heap of 
