CHAP. XV.] 
KAMRASI WILL NOT FIGHT. 
413 
and tangled herbage ten or twelve feet high, in which 
the enemy could approach us unperceived, secure from 
our guns. M’Gambi quite approved of my advice, and 
hurried off to the king, who, as usual in cases of ne¬ 
cessity, came to me without delay. He was very excited, 
and said, that messengers arrived four or five times a 
day, bringing reports of every movement of the enemy, 
who were advancing rapidly in three divisions, one by 
the route direct from M’rooli to Karuma that I had 
followed on my arrival at Atada, another direct to 
Kisoona, and a third between these two parallels, so as 
to cut off his retreat to an island in the Nile, where he 
had formerly taken refuge when his country was in¬ 
vaded by the same people. I begged him not to think 
of retiring to the island, but to take my advice and 
fight it out, in which case I should be happy to assist 
him as I was his guest, and I had a perfect right to 
repel any aggression. Accordingly I drew a plan of 
operations, showing how a camp could be formed on 
the cliff above Karuma Falls, having two sides pro¬ 
tected by the river, while a kraal could be formed in 
the vicinity completely commanded by our guns, where 
his cattle would remain in perfect security. He listened 
with wandering eyes to all military arrangements, and 
concluded by abandoning all idea of resistance, but 
resolutely adhering to his plan of flight to the island 
that had protected him on a former occasion. We 
could only agree upon two points, the evacuation of 
Kisoona as untenable, and the necessity of despatching 
a summons to Ibrahim immediately. The latter de¬ 
cision was acted upon that instant, and runners were 
despatched with a letter to Shooa. Kamrasi decided 
to wait until the next morning for reports from ex¬ 
pected messengers on the movements of the enemy, 
otherwise he might run into the very jaws of the danger 
he wished to avoid, and he promised to send porters 
to carry us and our effects, should it be necessary to 
march to Karuma: with this understanding, he de¬ 
parted. Bacheeta now assured me that the M'was were 
