to it, which partly protected After about three weeks of the gunners. After that, when this we returned to Akele. a puff of smoke was seen, the We had traversed the country Maxim was loosed off at it for in all directions-Jacky's countwenty seconds or so, and that try was only about twenty miles way we sometimes got one of square,-and had utterly failed the marksmen, but not always to bring the enemy to action. even then. As for fighting, We had killed five of the enemy there wasn't a semblance of it, for certain, and killed or but it was a most nerve-racking wounded perhaps about a dozen business all the same. more. We had one Hausa killed and eight wounded; we had used up a lot of Maxim ammunition, and nearly all our stores. We all had fever more or less, and we were, all of us, heartily sick and tired of the whole business. Then the flanking parties! It was necessary to have a small party out on each flank. These men had to carve out "tunnels for themselves. They first started at right angles to the main column, then turned at right angles again, and went on parallel to it, cutting "tunnels" all the way; and the main column had to regulate its pace by the flanking parties. We some times hardly made five miles in a day. And then the heat! The flies! The mosquitoes! The difficulty in getting water! It was wellnigh intolerable. Moreover, our 400 carriers, recruited from a neighbouring tribe, were even more exasperating than carriers usually are. Every now and then we came upon a native village, which we solemnly burnt. This pleased us, but didn't hurt the natives much. Everything movable had been carried off, and we had neither the time nor the means to destroy the tough mud walls. It would not take more than five or six days to reroof any of their villages. Poor Stanley! He had been so tremendously keen; he was not one of those subs who came out there for financial reasons, as many of them did at that time, attracted by the very high rate of pay. He had money of his own, and his only reason for coming out had been to see active service and advance himself in his chosen profession. He had been so overjoyed at receiving an independent command, and had set out with such high hopes. Moreover, I will say this, he had shown himself to be a skilful as well as a careful leader, plucky, untiring, and outwardly cheerful through it all. Our utter failure so far was bitter disappointment to him. We held a council after our evening meal, and we called in the sergeant to assist in our deliberations. "Tell me, you men," said That's all very well," said Stanley. "But in that case it would no longer be my show; a senior officer would be sent up in command, and he would Stanley, "is there anything I have done which I should not have done? Is there anything I have not done which I should have done?" "Not that I can see," said eventually get all the credit, the doctor. even if it was my column which 'Nor I, sir," said the ser- brought Jacky to book, and after the cursed luck I have geant. What do you say ? said had so far, I'm dam' sure it Stanley to me. "Well," said I, "I have been through three shows before, as you know, and I can only say that I haven't seen one better handled or better led than this." "Thanks, old chap, that's some consolation at any rate; but what the blazes am I to do now? Send for reinforcements? If I do I shall never hear the end of it; I shall be a laughing-stock from one end of the country to the other. Fifty men were considered sufficient to smash this tinpot "king," and so they would be if I could only find him. The chief would be coming up here himself in a rage, and I should get a large piece of his mind." "Don't be afraid of that, old man," I said. The chief has been on too many shows himself to blame you; he has been in the same fix himself before now, as I very well know. I should send for reinforcements at once if I were you. Your force is too small to divide, but if two or three columns were operating in different directions, one or the other of them would be sure to corner old Jacky." would be some other fellow's column." Just then my native boy came in. "Old Tom want you, sah." "What!" said I. "Bring him in at once." In came Old Tom in his voluminous white robe that looked so like a Roman toga, and carrying his "copper stick as usual. Old Tom grinned, but he took no other notice of my question. "The king greet you, sah," he said again, “and he say he want for fight you." "Good Lord!" said Stanley, jumping up; "then why the blazes doesn't he fight us! We've been wanting to fight him, and trying our damnedest to fight him for the last three weeks." "The king say, sah," said Old Tom, turning to Stanley, "you hab gun dat shoot all day (the Maxim), no be fair. Suppose you no use dem gun, day. I did not like it at all, the king fight you." 66 Tell your king suppose he fight me on white man's ground, I no use dem gun." "I go, sah," said Old Tom. To-morrow I come back." I told my boy to give him a good shot of "squareface,' squareface," and he departed grinning more than ever. "White man's ground was the name the natives had given to an open space about four miles to the north of us. Some idiot had tried to grow cotton there a couple of years before. He had got the concession from Jacky, and had had the ground cleared and planted. It came to nothing; the soil was quite unsuitable. I had often passed over the spot, and seen the remains of the crop it all turned black. The space was roughly a circle about a thousand yards in diameter. As you may suppose, we had a lot of talk about the matter both that night and the next and said so. The more I thought of it the less I liked it. I had had too much experience of native treacheryof Jacky's in particular,-and I did not expect for one moment that he would give us a "square deal." However, I was wrong, as you shall hear. Old Tom duly returned the next night, and said that Jacky was quite agreeable to fight on the ground selected, and he actually asked Stanley - it sounds unbelievable, but it is absolutely true-if next Thursday would suit him, for all the world as if he were asking him to dinner. Stanley told him gravely that Thursday would suit him very well. Old Tom departed with more "squareface inside him (and still grinning), and so we stood committed. On Thursday we started very early, and Stanley neglected none of his former precautions, as I had half-feared he would. We made our way to the field of battle with the Maxim in front as usual, and with parties out on each flank, so that it was nearly two in the afternoon before we reached our destination. When we got out of the bush Stanley deployed his men, and sent the Maxim to the rear. He put it in my charge, with strict orders that it was not to be used in the open. It was blazing hot, and we felt it the more after the shade in the bush. The ground was covered with coarse grass and weeds, and here and there with the remains of the cotton. Stanley advanced slowly and cautiously, with his flanks slightly thrown back, uncertain from which point of the compass the enemy would make their attack-that is, if they did attack-for, of course, the whole thing might have been just a ruse to get us away from the river, or to lead us into some trap. This is what I had feared all along, and Stanley, in his eagerness to finish the business himself, had risked it. However, Jacky turned out to be a sportsman, and a very brave sportsman at that. He made a direct frontal attack. When we had advanced very slowly and cautiously about 300 yards, Jacky and his men burst out of the bush right opposite us with ear-splitting yells, and the great battle began. They came on first in a dense mass-Jacky well in front, about 800 of them I should say, but, of course, in that formation they had no chance. The Hausas are not crack shots, but they are fairly useful, and up to 500 yards pretty deadly, and they could hardly miss that mass of humanity at that range; they were very steady, too. The bundooks," with which Jacky's men were armed, will not carry more than 150 yards. The enemy did not get to within 300 yards of us, and after losing very heavily, they fell back to the bush again. In about an hour they came on again scattered over a wide front. They got on much better then, and many of them got near enough to loose off their bundooks. We began to get a taste of the slugs, and the doctor became busy. They also enveloped our flanks, and began to work round towards our rear, and for a little while matters looked a bit ugly. I know I had to keep a tight hold on the crew of the Maxim to prevent them bringing it into action. However, the Hausas were very steady, Stanley and the sergeant setting a splendid example, and the enemy, brave as they were, could not stand up very long to that deadly fire. They stood it for nearly an hour, and then retired to the bush again. Jacky had been in the forefront of both attacks, but came through without a scratch. I believe that the Hausas, who greatly admire bravery, deliberately spared him. As soon as the enemy had disappeared into the bush, to our astonishment, Jacky and Old Tom, accompanied only by two lads, reappeared and came straight towards us; Stanley gave orders not to fire at them, and Jacky came straight up to me. As if nothing had happened, he coolly asked me for some gin. I told him that I had none with me, but that if he would come back with me to the mess house I would give him some with pleasure. He came without the slightest hesitation, and then and there on the verandah of the mess-house we made peace. He agreed to return all loot, to pay 500 goats, and I forget how much oil, and to give up his three eldest sons as hostages. Finally, for the first and last time to my knowledge, he got gloriously drunk, and fell asleep on the floor. We never had any more trouble in the district. We sent Jacky's sons down to Bonny to be educated (the school was at Ogugumanga then). They turned out eventually as good specimens of natives as you would wish to see. It is a great mistake, and very cruel, to send natives to be educated be educated in England. I never found out for certain why Jacky had so suddenly turned on me, though I have no doubt that my interpreter was right in his surmise. |