Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 125.djvu/98

84 her. That Baker was thus enabled to extricate himself and his men on this weary march is the best proof that can he afforded of his military talent and of the discipline by which he had converted his Forty Thieves into one of the bravest bodyguards that ever rallied round an adored chief. On June 24th, after ten days' incessant fighting, they reached Foweera on the Victoria Nile, where Rionga met them with supplies. Him Baker appointed king of Unyoro, in the name of the khedive, in the room of the faithless Kabba Rega. Continuing his march, Baker reached the fort at Fatiko on August 2nd, where he found that the slave-traders, at the instigation of Aboo Saood, had spread the report that he, Baker, was dead, a fable which was speedily passed down the Nile to Egypt, and thence, to Europe to the alarm of Baker's many friends. One more victory still remained for Baker and his Forty Thieves. We have seen that the slave-traders had a camp at Fatiko, and in despair at seeing their hopes of the failure of the expedition frustrated, they had the rashness to open fire on Baker's men. In a few moments Baker was armed, his devoted wife handing him his rifle and belt, and in as many minutes the Forty were charging the enemy at the point of the bayonet, and scattering them in all directions.

Firmly convinced of Aboo Saood's treachery. Baker says that he ought to have hanged him on the spot; but he confesses that diplomacy was necessary, as he had, at that distance from Gondokoro, only one hundred and forty-six men to contend against many hundreds. On August 7th the traitor appeared in Baker's camp, and exhibited so much ingenuity in lying in his defence, that Baker says "he could merely reply by dismissing him with the assurance that there was only one really good and honest man in the world who invariably spoke the truth; this man was Aboo Saood. All other men were liars." So next day the traitor according to Baker departed, swearing "by the eyes and head of the Prophet," "his favourite oath," says Baker, "whenever he told the biggest lie," that there was no one so true to him as himself; a promise which he carried out by spreading every false report against the pacha and by lodging a complaint against him with the khedive at Cairo as having ruined trade. It was during his stay at Fatiko that Baker received envoys from Mtésé, the well-known king of Uganda, the region which Speke and Grant had visited, and in which Livingstone was then lingering. These envoys were beautifully clean and as civilized and intelligent as Europeans. Of old we know Mtésé had been a sad ruffian, but Baker tells us that he had become a Mussulman, said his prayers daily, no longer murdered his wives, and, if he cut the throat of a man, it was done in God's name. He kept clerks too who corresponded for him in Arabic, encouraged all trade except that in slaves, and, greatly to Baker's delight, had treated Aboo Saood's emissaries like dogs. This great potentate had now sent a letter to Baker expressing the greatest friendship and informing him that as soon as he heard of Kabba Rega's treachery, he had sent an army under General Congow to be placed at his disposal. All he desired was to see Baker's face, and, rare exception among African kings, "he did not wish for presents." Alas! all that Baker could do was to say that his command would shortly expire, and to send him a letter for Livingstone.

After his last victory at Fatiko there is little left to tell of taker's expedition. After some sporting adventures in that delightful region, which he describes as an earthly paradise, he retraced his steps to Gondokoro, where he arrived on August 1, 1873, the very day on which his four years' term of command expired. For nearly three years he had heard nothing from the government which had appointed him. On May 25th he parted from his Forty Thieves, not without emotion; and on June 29th he reached Khartoum, having passed near Fashodo a cargo of seven hundred slaves consigned to Egypt by Aboo Saood. On August 24th he reached Cairo, where he had an interview with the khedive, to whom he explained the position of the territories which he had annexed to his dominions. At the same time he laid his counter-charge against Aboo Saood, and left the evidence supporting it in the hands of the Egyptian government. Six weeks afterwards, having been decorated with the second class of the Imperial Order of the Osmanie, Baker left Egypt. The work which he had begun, whether for suppressing the slave-trade, or for, annexing new territory, has since been confided, as is well known, to Colonel Gordon, who by the last accounts has annexed Darfoor to Egypt. The last drop in the cup of bitterness which the Egyptian government has made Baker 