438 
DEATH OF A HEADSMAN . 
[chap. XV. 
killed instead of liberated. However, I had done all 
in my power; and had Kalloe been a man of deter¬ 
mination he could have saved himself by trusting 
implicitly to me. As I returned to the camp, I could 
not help reflecting on the ingratitude I had experienced 
among all the natives; on many occasions I had exerted 
myself to benefit others in whom I had no personal 
interest, but in no single instance had I ever received 
even a look of gratitude. 
Two days after this occurrence I ordered the boy 
Saat to go as usual in search of supplies to the neigh¬ 
bouring villages; but as he was starting, Ibrahim advised 
him to wait a little, as something w^as wrong, and it 
would be dangerous to go alone ;—a few minutes later, 
I heard three shots fired in rapid succession at about 
three-quarters of a mile distant. The Turks and my 
men immediately thronged outside the village, which 
position being on a hill, we had a panoramic view of 
the surrounding country. We shortly perceived a 
number of men, including a few of the Turks’ party, 
approaching from an opposite hill, carrying something 
heavy in their arms. With the telescope I distinguished 
a mat on which some object of weight was laboriously 
supported, the bearers grasping the corners in their 
hands. “ One of our people is killed ! ” murmured one 
Turk; “Perhaps it’s only a native/’ said another;— 
“ Who would trouble himself to carry a black fellow 
home ! ” exclaimed a third. The mystery was soon 
cleared by the arrival of the party with the dead body 
of one of Kamrasi’s headmen;—one ball had struck 
him through the chest, another through the right arm, 
and the third had passed through the body from side 
to side. He had been shot by some Bari slaves who 
acted as soldiers belonging to the Turks’ party. It ap¬ 
peared that the deceased had formerly sent seventy 
elephants’ tusks to the people of Mahommed Wat el 
Mek against the orders of Kamrasi, who had prohibited 
the export of ivory from his kingdom, as he had agreed 
to deal exclusively with Ibrahim. The culprit was 
