CHAPTER XVI
The Making of an Army
An Embargo--Federation--Gunpowder--An Object-Lesson--The GreatPalaver--After Many Years--Pikes--The Call to Arms
In the exchange of confidences Herr Schwab informed Tom that he had beenfor several months wandering about with his donkeys and his samples,booking orders for his firm. He had for the most part confined himselfto the villages in the vicinity of the Victoria Nyanza; but having heardrumours of a large body of Arabs who were in possession of plentifulstores of ivory, he had recently left German East Africa and comerapidly northwards. He had heard nothing whatever of the fate of MajorBurnaby's expedition, and could not answer Tom's eager enquiries for hisfriends; indeed, he had met no Europeans except his own compatriotssince he left Kisumu. He heard Tom's story, modestly told as it was,with mingled amazement and incredulity. But there was no gainsaying thefact that the young Englishman was virtually chief of a large Bahimavillage, and Schwab was not the man to lose any opportunity for trade.Learning that an Arab attack was expected, and that Tom's pressingnecessity was arms and ammunition, he offered to smuggle in some Mausersfrom German East Africa, as of course he could not import arms openlyinto the territory of the Congo Free State.
"Can't think of it," said Tom decisively. "If it's against the rulesthat's enough for me. We must play the game, you know. Besides, I'mgoing to try to make some gunpowder myself."
"Ach!" exclaimed the German with a shrug, "certainly you vill burn yourfingers, my young friend. But now, vat can I do for you?"
"Fetch in your packages and let me see what you have."
When the bags were opened Tom at once marked a Colt revolver.
"That's mine," he said; "a pretty thing, by Jove! And you've cartridgesfor it! And I'll take that Waterbury I see there; made in Germany, ofcourse. And three of those pocket-books, with a dozen lead-pencils; andthat comb; and a tooth-brush. Have you a tooth-brush? That's the verything. You've a razor too; I'd take that if you had a looking-glass.I'd like to get rid of this fur on my cheeks, but I'm afraid I shouldgash myself horribly without a glass. What--you have one? Capital; anda shaving-brush too, I see, and soap. Why, Schwab, what a universalprovider you are! There's one thing I'd give a great deal for, andthat's a pound of tea, Mazawattee or anything else. Haven't any? ThenI must do without. You have some quinine, I see; that'll always come inhandy. I think that's about all. Now, how much does that come to?"
"Ten pound," said the German instantly.
"What! Ten pounds for those few things! Why, it's ruinous! How do youmake out the bill?"
"I gif no bill. I hafe vat you call mon-o-po-ly, my young friend. Itis take it or leafe it, I do not mind."
"Business are business, indeed! Well, I want the things. I can dowithout the watch and the pocket-books, perhaps. How much then?"
"Ten pound; I hafe only vun price."
"You old Shylock! Well, I haven't the cash, so I can't expect the fiveper cent, but I'll give you an order on my uncle. I suppose that'llsatisfy you?"
"Oh yes! ze British officer vat you call pay opp. I vill feel quitesafe."
"Very well. Heavens! how funny it is to hold a pencil again! There youare: 'Pay Herr Schwab on sight ten pounds (L10). Tom Burnaby'. That'lldo, eh?"
"All correct, my young friend. And now, vat more can I do for you?"
"I hardly like to ask you, but would you mind--pray don't hesitate tosay so--would you mind cutting my hair?"
"You hafe done me vell, Mr. Burnaby; I do not mind. I vill cut yourhair, and sell you ze scissors."
"Fire away, then, and don't dig into my skin, will you?"
Schwab turned up his sleeves, tucked a long yellow scarf from hisvariety bundle round Tom's neck, and cropped him close, with no morethan the usual stabs and pricks. Then Tom escorted him round his littledomain, and gratified him with an order for various tools andimplements. He remained overnight as Tom's guest, and started early inthe morning northwards to visit the Arabs.
Before he left, Tom warned him that he might find the Arabs ratherunpleasant customers. But Schwab puffed himself out and waved thewarning away.
"Vat!" he said, "the Arabs vill not dare do anyzink to me, a Gairman!Our Kaiser, who is in Berlin--he vould know ze reason vy if vun hair ofmy head vas touched."
"You Germans are lucky," laughed Tom. "The King isn't so particularabout my hair! Besides, it's not much good knowing after the event.You're out of reach of an army corps, you know, or even a telegram."
"I am not vun small bit afraid. I hafe my Mausers. I hafe my revolver;besides, I go to sell ammunition, and zat ze Arabs vill alvays be mostglad to get."
"I must put my veto on that. I fear, Mr. Schwab, you don't quiterealize the situation. I have every sympathy with legitimate trade--weBritish are a trading nation; but as matters stand I must regard riflesas contraband of war. Sell the Arabs pins and milking-pails and anythingelse you like, but no arms or ammunition. In fact, I shall have to askyou to leave your cases of ammunition here, taking with you only enoughto serve your immediate needs. I can't have arms put into my enemy'shands. And you're smuggling, you know; you'd get into hot water if theFree State people knew. I'll keep your ammunition safe until youreturn. And another thing, Herr Schwab. You'll be good enough to givethe Arabs no information about me or the village. I'm not sure that asa precaution I oughtn't to prevent your getting to them at all, but Idon't want to be unfriendly. It's understood, then, that you keep toyourself all that you have seen here?"
The German tried for half an hour to wriggle out of the dilemma, but Tomtold him flatly at last that on no other conditions would he be allowedto proceed; and he at last submitted with a shrug.
Half an hour after Schwab had gone Tom started with Mbutu, the katikiro,the kasegara, the principal drummer, and three other officials, for thehill to which the chiefs had been summoned for palaver. They allarrived at the rendezvous, and for five long hours Tom patientlyexplained and argued and explained again, striving with infinite tact todispel their suspicions and to persuade them of the ultimate advantagethey would all derive from co-operation. Coached beforehand in definitedetails by the katikiro, he reminded them of the ravages from which theyhad already suffered; of the villages burnt to the ground, the cropsdestroyed, the ruthless massacres, the brutal mutilations, the hundredscaptured as slaves. He touched a tender spot when he spoke of theimmense treasures of ivory of which the Arabs had despoiled them--ivorywhich their own skill as hunters had obtained, and which they might havesold profitably to the Free State Government or to merchants. Lastly,finding it necessary to take a leaf out of the African's own book, hespoke of himself, of the Great White King, of his own deeds against theArabs, and said that only if they fell in with his proposal could theyhope to deal a final crushing blow at the Arab power. The chiefs weremore and more impressed, and at length one of them said that only onething was still needed to bring him under Kuboko's banner. He had heardgreat stories of Kuboko's big medicine; if Kuboko would exhibit hismagic and convince him by the evidence of his own eyes, he wouldwillingly call Kuboko brother and follow him as his great chief.
Tom instantly agreed, and the katikiro fairly danced with merriment.Nothing could be more effectual, Tom thought, than his final performancewith the medicine-man, so he invited the chiefs in turn to knock himdown if they could. They showed at first some reluctance, but Msalaassured them that Kuboko would bear them no malice. Thus reassured theyadvanced in turn, and in a very few minutes all three were sitting onthe ground, laughing uproariously at their own mishaps, while thekatikiro and his friends made the countryside resound with theirboisterous "Hoo! hoo! hoo!" No further proof was required; the chiefssignified their adhesion to the proposed confederation, and declaredthat they were ready, on a day to be fixed, formally to become Kuboko'sblood-brothers.
This being achieved, Tom spent another hour in explaining the details ofthe federation. Each chief, as soon
as the approach of the Arabs wassignalled, was to place himself unreservedly at Tom's orders, and bringhis contingent into the field. They could each promise about twohundred men. The signal would be given in the usual way by drums, and toensure early information Tom intimated that he would arrange a series ofposts about three miles apart, extending for some thirty miles into theforest, in the direction from which the Arabs might be expected. Assoon as the enemy was sighted, the fact would be announced by drums frompost to post; but in order to provide against the possibility of mistakea message would also be conveyed by runners.
One of the conditions of the alliance was that each member of theconfederacy bound himself to assist in the rebuilding of any villagethat might be destroyed, and Tom was especially careful in explainingthe reason.
"You see, my brothers," he said, "you will not wish to leave yourvillages feeling that during your absence, and owing to your absence,they may be burnt, and your wives and children thus rendered homeless.But by accepting my plan, when the drum tells you that the Arabs arecoming, you may rush to join me with every confidence; for if yourvillages are destroyed, you know that all your brothers, yes, and Imyself, will help to build them up again. And so you will have new hutsfor old. Is it well, my brothers?"
There were grunts of acquiescence.
"There is one other thing," Tom continued. "The Arabs, if they come inthe large numbers that we expect, will range the country far and widefor food. Then I recommend you, if at this late season of the year youhave still any of your crops unreaped, or any of your food-roots in theground, to gather in all that you can, and dig deep pits in secretplaces, and there store your harvest. It is not well that we shouldfeed the Arabs."
The chiefs again showed by their grunts that they found Kuboko'srecommendation good.
"Now I want you, when you return to your own villages, to call up allthe petty chiefs who look up to you, the chiefs of tens and twenties andthirties, and explain to them what we have talked about to-day. If theyagree to come in with us, you will bring them to a grand palaver on thissame hillside eight days from now. Every man will carry his arms, andcome equipped as for war."
Tom was thoroughly tired out when he got back to the village. He hadintended to write, in one of the note-books he had obtained from Schwab,a brief jotting of recent events, for future reference, but he put offthat till next morning. When morning came, however, he was too anxiousto begin his experiments in powder-making to spend any time in penningrecords. He had a large quantity of crude sulphur and saltpetre torefine, and he was by no means sure that with the rough apparatus athand he would be successful. That could easily be tested, and he at onceset about his preparations for the task.
He got a number of large earthen pots of all shapes and sizes, and brokeup the rough dirty rolls of sulphur into these. Then he heated themgently over slow fires, and found, as he had hoped, that the earthyimpurities gradually settled at the bottom, leaving the pure sulphur, aliquid like treacle, at the top. This he ladled off into clean vessels.
So far so good. The next thing was the saltpetre which had beencollected by the women. This also he put into vessels, and dissolvedthe crude solid in water. Raising the mixture to the boiling-point, heallowed it to cool gradually, and watched for the result. The puresaltpetre was deposited in a solid crystalline mass at the bottom.
Here then were two of the necessary constituents; the third was easilyobtained, for the katikiro had admirably carried out his instructions,and had personally superintended the cutting and carrying of an immensequantity of splendid wood from the forest, which was easily convertedinto charcoal by heating it in closed vessels.
Nothing now remained but to mix these ingredients.
"We must take care it isn't bang! soosh! black man all dead," said Tomto Mbutu, who, with all the other officials, was taking the keenestinterest in the experiments. "I think we had better build a shed half amile away, so that if there is an explosion it will do no harm except tome and you and my assistants."
"Sah no go," said Mbutu. "Me go; make bang stuff; blow up; all same forone."
"No, my boy, that won't do. Why, the people here would lose all faithin me if I was afraid to take my own big medicine. No; we'll set aboutrunning up a shed at once, and take care to avoid risks as much aspossible. Two men with you and me will be enough to do the mixing, atfirst, at any rate, and you may choose them out of your own friends."
A wooden shed was soon fixed up on an open space far from trees or bush,and Tom arranged to begin work before dawn next day, so as to get somemixing done before the sun was high. He was not at all sure about theproportions in which the three constituents ought to be mixed, but hopedto find that out by experiment. Just as the darkness began to clear hewent out to the shed with Mbutu alone to make a first attempt inprivate. It was unsuccessful; the mixture burnt readily enough, butwithout explosion. He guessed from his failure that the quantity ofsaltpetre in his first mixture had not been sufficient, and, carefullymeasuring out his quantities in a small brass cup, he increased theamount little by little, testing a portion of the mixture after eachaddition, until at last he was rewarded with a decided explosion whichreverberated in a hundred echoes, and was answered by the banging of thesentry's drum in the village. Tom laughed with almost childish delightat the success of his efforts, and, taking careful note of theproportions he had finally arrived at, he returned to the village.
Next morning he took out the two Bahima selected by Mbutu, and foundthat not only were they quick to learn, but, what is more important in anative of Africa, they recognized the necessity for caution. Theyworked steadily till ten o'clock, and at the end of the day Tom foundhimself in possession of several pounds of serviceable powder. It was aqueer-looking mixture, and Tom said to himself, with a laugh, that nodoubt it would miserably fail to pass the Waltham test; but he knew thatit would serve his purpose, and that was sufficient. Within a fortnighthe had stored about half a ton in the recesses of the cavern in thecliff, and had collected in the village a large quantity of the severalconstituents, which only awaited mixing.
"It is a pity," he thought, "that with an almost unlimited supply ofpowder, we can make so little use of it. At the most we have musketsfor only two hundred and fifty men, and many of these are likely to beas dangerous to us as to the enemy. With the powder we already have wecould supply a brigade for a month's campaign. But surely it can beused in some other way?"
In the event of another siege the store of powder would, he knew, beinvaluable for mining purposes; but he wished to find some method bywhich it could be turned to account in field operations. At last he hitupon an idea. Why not lay in a supply of hand-grenades? He could not,of course, with the limited supply of metal in the village, and thestill more limited smithy arrangements, manufacture bombs with a metalcase; but after some cogitation he found a means of surmounting thisdifficulty. The grenades, he thought, might be made of thick pottery,encased in a double or triple envelope of elastic wicker-work, thelatter intended to prevent the bomb, when thrown, from bursting beforethe fuse had time to do its work. In the manufacture of this outerenvelope Tom relied on the extreme ingenuity of the Bahima in all kindsof basket-weaving; and his expectations in this respect were more thanrealized. Experimenting first with a dummy shell, he found that,protected by the wicker covering, it could be thrown to a distance offorty or fifty yards without breaking the earthenware container. Thiswas quite sufficient for his purpose.
"I think," he said to the katikiro, who was watching his experimentswith mingled wonder and amusement, "that we shall be able to give theArabs more than one surprise if they visit us again. I want you to getyour potters and weavers to make two dozen more jars after this pattern;Mbutu will take them, together with a large basketful of granite chips,to the shed where we made the powder. We shall see to-morrow whetherthese little jars are going to be of use to us."
On the following morning Tom went with Mbutu to the powder-shed, whichhad always been made tab
oo to the villagers. There he half-filled oneof the jars with granite chips (all the available iron scraps beingrequired for the muskets), and rammed in on the top a bursting-charge ofgunpowder. Into the neck of the jar he fitted a plug, through which ahole was bored for the insertion of a time fuse. In the preparation ofthe fuse Tom's school-boy experiments in pyrotechny stood him in goodstead. Some cotton fibre steeped in a solution of saltpetre fullyanswered his purpose. His next step was to erect a framework ofmatch-boarding to serve as a target. Stationing himself behind anearthen breastwork about forty yards from the target, he set fire to thefuse of his trial bomb and, hurling it at the target, dropped to theground behind the entrenchment. There he waited for some seconds untila loud report showed that his grenades could at least be trusted toexplode; some small fragments dropped within a few feet of his shelter.Stepping up to the target, he found it pitted in a dozen places withdents due to the granite chips, some of which were driven some distanceinto the wood. There was no doubt that had a body of men been within afew feet of the bomb when it exploded, not many would have survived.
Tom's next concern was to ensure, first, that the fuse should beperfectly trustworthy, and secondly, that the bursting-charge of powdershould not be so great as to bring the grenadiers themselves within thedanger-zone. It required two or three days of careful experiment beforehe was satisfied on these points. Then he instructed the katikiro toselect twenty potters and twice as many weavers to manufacture a largesupply of bombs; and under his own and Mbutu's supervision these werecarefully charged in the shed, and stowed away in the cavern on thecliff. The provision of a number of plug-bayonets by the village smithscompleted his experiments in the preparation of warlike stores.
On the day before the general palaver, the katikiro came to Tom andinformed him that the chief who had so insolently dismissed Barega'smessenger during the siege had come into the village with a retinue, andhad very humbly asked to see Kuboko.
"Ah!" said Tom; "he has come round, has he? Bring him up."
The chief and his men drew near very much as whipped dogs would havedone. Within ten yards of Tom's hut they flung themselves on theirfaces, and wriggled their way with ludicrous contortions towards him.He thought it a good opportunity for teaching the whole village asalutary lesson, so he summoned the people by beat of drum, and orderedthem to stand round. Then he severely asked the fawning chief his nameand business.
"O Kuboko, great master, my name is Uchunku," said the man. "I amweaker than a dog, smaller than a flea. Nothing that I have but is mineby the mercy of Kuboko. I have heard of Kuboko's mighty power, and Ifall on my face, for no man can stand upright in the presence of the manof big medicine. I have heard, O Kuboko, of the wonderful thrower thatcasts mountains as high as the very stars of heaven; and of the mightyflood that flowed from the hollow of Kuboko's hand, and upon which theArabs were swept away even as leaves upon the torrent. All this have Iheard, and more, and I come to put my neck under Kuboko's foot, and beghim to gird my village about with his mighty magic."
Tom let the man grovel there, and paused before he answered. Then heupbraided him for his meanness and folly in refusing help to hisneighbour Barega when in dire extremity, and declared that he deservedto be left to meet single-handed the devastating Arabs.
"You are a coward, Uchunku," he said. "You stood aloof from yourneighbour in distress, and then, when you find that all your otherneighbours have seen the wisdom of joining my people and accepting myleadership, you come and whine like a puppy to be taken in. I will havemercy on you; I will admit you to our confederacy; but you will have toprove yourself worthy. You will be given no place of trust, your menwill not be allowed to bear arms, until you have shown that you areloyal, and ready to carry out all my commands."
The miserable chief abjectly promised to do anything, even the mostmenial work, to merit Kuboko's favour. Tom cut him short, bade him getup, and ordered him to attend the palaver next day with all his men.
Tom would have been more than human if he had not felt a thrill and glowof pride next day, when, at the appointed mote-hill, he found a greatconcourse of natives awaiting him. The three chiefs of the formerpalaver had most effectively fulfilled his instructions. Each hadbrought a group of petty chiefs, and each of these had come with severalof his warriors, so that the whole assembly numbered nearly threehundred men, armed in their several ways. They were Bantu negroes ofvarious races, some of them tall, splendid specimens of humanity, someshort and thick-set, all muscular and in the pink of physical condition.Until Tom came in sight with his small escort, they had kept up aconstant chatter, the sound of which travelled across the country likethe noise of a vast army of rooks or gulls. But as Tom ascended thehill a silence fell upon the throng. Hundreds of eyes looked curiouslyat the man of whom they had heard so much. When he reached the brow ofthe hill, moved as by one impulse the crowd raised their spears aloftand cried aloud: "Kuboko! Kuboko! Waize! Thou comest!" and it was thenthat Tom thrilled with the thought that all these simple, untutorednegroes were looking to him as their leader, and relying on him to savethem from the awful fate they must inevitably meet if their inhumanoppressors had their will. And thus, when he had gathered them abouthim in a large ring, there was a deep note of earnestness in his voiceas he addressed them. He thanked them first for coming so readily athis wish, and briefly explained to them the arrangements he had alreadymade with the three superior chiefs, impressing on them the seriousnessof the effort soon to be made to rid them for ever of their age-longfoes, and the necessity for all to work together without jealousy orself-seeking. Much of what he said he knew must fall on deaf ears; hecould not expect them to forget the habits and ideas that were part oftheir blood; but if he could only gain their confidence, he hoped thathis personal influence and example would succeed in effecting something,however little.
When he had won their approval of his general scheme, he ventured to putto them another proposal which he felt would meet with opposition. Itwas that, when the great day came, they should bring all their women andchildren, with their valuable possessions, to Mwonga, until the fightwas over. A low murmur of disapproval ran round the ring, then thenegroes began to gesticulate and argue excitedly until loud shouts of"Nga! Ngabuse!" their strongest negative, filled the air. Waitingpatiently through the uproar, Tom at length held up his hand, and aftersome minutes succeeded in stilling the storm. Then, in the same evenquiet manner, he began to reason with them.
"Why do my brothers shout so loudly into the sky? Is Kuboko deaf thathe cannot hear? Is he stupid that he cannot understand? I, Kuboko,have but two arms and two hands. I cannot take all my brothers into mygrip and drag them whither it pleases me. No, but I speak plain wordsto my brothers, and if they are not good words then my brothers can gotheir own way. Listen, men of a hundred villages, how can you hope tohold your huts against the attack of a strong and cruel foe? See, Itake this spear-shaft in my hand, I lay it across my knees and snap itin two; you could do the same. But now I take five spear-shaftstogether, and though I strive and strain I cannot break so much as oneof them. What think you of that, my brothers?"
The old illustration, so happily remembered, had an instant effect onthe keen natives, to whose minds the practical so strongly appeals.Allowing a little time for the lesson to strike home, Tom went on:
"Now, what of Mwonga? Think how it is placed--on a hill, a steep pathat one end, a precipice at one side, an ever-flowing stream, a well-keptstockade. Have we not already driven the Arabs from it, not once nortwice? I have no thought of doing favour to Mwonga. It is not myvillage: my village is far away, over mountains and rivers, on the otherside of a big water stretching farther than any eye can see. My villageawaits me, and when my work is done I long only to go back to it and seemy fields and huts and the faces of my own people again. But while I amhere I want to help you, and you, and you, my brothers, every one ofyou. Make, then, a great camp at Mwonga until the Arabs are beaten andhunted away. Only Mwonga has
been able to defy them. Does any chiefknow of a better place? If so, let him speak."
There was a long pause. Each chief consulted with his own men. Thenone of the three principal chiefs called for silence, and declared thatKuboko's words were good. A long and excited discussion ensued, untilat length they agreed to Tom's proposal, provided the village could besufficiently enlarged to contain all their dependents in case of need.Tom at once called for the services of a thousand men to extend thestockade, widen the ditch, and build new huts for the accommodation ofthe guests. This was also agreed to, and then Tom endeavoured to get anidea of what his total force of fighting-men would amount to. He tooksome time to question each chief as to the strength of his owncontingent, and to make the necessary deductions due to their incurablelove of boasting; but the number actually arrived at, including his ownforce of Bahima and Bairo, fell not far short of four thousand. Thenthe assembly broke up.
One of the lesser chiefs, during the latter part of the conference, hadbeen looking with great interest at Mbutu, who stood by his master'sside. He was a tall Muhima, lithe and strong, with an Egyptian cast offeature and the strange melancholy expression so characteristic of hisrace. Looking very puzzled, he edged gradually nearer to Mbutu, and, asTom turned to go down the hill, took the young Muhima by both arms, andgazed searchingly into his face.
"What is it, Mbutu?" said Tom. "Come along."
"Mbutu!" ejaculated the chief; then smiled, and shook the boy's arms upand down excitedly, talking very rapidly and earnestly the while. Mbutulistened at first in fascinated amazement, but by and by his expressionchanged, he clasped the stranger's neck, and, turning to his master,said simply:
"Him my brudder, sah! Him Mboda!"
Then he explained. When his village had been raided and burned someyears before, he had believed that he alone of the male population hadescaped alive. He had seen his father and two brothers killed, and knewthat the women would be carried into captivity. But it now appearedthat a few of the younger men had evaded the clutches of the Arabs andgot away into the forest, under the leadership of Mboda, his thirdbrother, and that, when the danger was past, they had returned, built avillage several miles west of the one that was burned, and graduallygathered about them a few men and women of their own stock. Of thissmall village Mboda was now chief, and he had been among the most eagerto join the coalition against the enemy he had so good reason forhating.
The delight of the brothers at their unexpected meeting was so manifestthat Tom invited Mboda to return to Mwonga and stay for a few days.Mboda eagerly accepted the invitation, and sent word to his village byone of his men.
On Tom's return to Mwonga, the operations arranged were immediately putin hand and pressed on in spite of the constant rains. When the newstockade was completed, the enclosure was more than half a mile square,and there was room for the temporary accommodation of fifteen thousandpeople. The hole in the wall of the reservoir was filled up, so thatthe supply of water needed by so vast a host might be kept as large aspossible; and the defences were further strengthened by a solid earthenembankment impenetrable to bullets. Another measure of Tom's, at firstthe cause of much grief and dismay among the Bairo, was the levelling ofthe banana plantation on the south-east of the village. But when thenews was carried round among the allies it made a vast impression. Thechiefs recognized that not they alone were required to make sacrifices,but that the people of Mwonga themselves submitted even to the loss of aflourishing plantation at the bidding of Kuboko.
But all this Tom felt was but child's play to the work of training hismen. He knew, from what he had read of operations in which nativetroops had been engaged, in the Soudan and Kumasi, for instance, howimpulsive the negro is, how prone to get out of hand, how apt to fight"off his own bat", without the least idea of co-operation. It washopeless to attempt the training of the whole body of his allies; itwould take years of vigorous drill, and the constant attention ofBritish non-commissioned officers, to eradicate these defects andimplant new ideas and habits in the native. All that he could hope todo was to bring his own men, and especially the select body of twohundred and fifty, into something like order. He worked unsparingly.He got the men to fall in in double ranks, and arranged them accordingto their height, making them number and form fours in the good old wayhe remembered at school. When it came to "Left!" and "Right!" he hadsome trouble at first, and the operation of changing ranks was almosttoo much for the Bahima, not to speak of Tom's patience. Marking timepresented no difficulty, and when the willing negroes had once learnedthe difference between right and left it was not long before the orders"Right form", "Left form", "Move to the right in fours", and the othermystic cries of the barrack-yard, were carried out with fair precision.All these military commands Tom gave in English, and he often smiled tothink of the surprise which his uncle, or any other British officer,would feel if he were dumped down suddenly one day at Mwonga's villageand heard the curt expressions of English drill bawled within thestockade.
The four hours' drill was kept up every day, and the monotony of it wascompensated by the eagerness and aptness of his pupils. Before, theywere a mob; now, they were gradually gaining the power to work togetherand becoming a serviceable force. This was strikingly shown in theirvolley-firing. After repeated efforts, Tom almost despaired of breakingthe men of firing haphazard, anticipating the word of command, blazingwith eyes shut in every possible direction. But patience won the day,and at last he was able to advance men against them in sham-fight towithin twenty yards without a trigger being pulled before the word wasgiven.
The manufacture of gunpowder having proved successful, it was acomparatively easy matter to make slugs for the muskets. Every scrap ofold iron, brass, copper, lead, in the place was utilized for thispurpose, and at last the musketeers were provided with sufficientammunition, Tom considered, to last them through a month's briskfighting.
Having brought them into something like order, he next set about theequipment of an equal force of pikemen. He had read something of thegood service done by pikemen in the wars of the seventeenth century, andhe was indeed amazed to find how details that had lain unnoticed in hismind now came crowding to his recollection. He got his men to cutstrong staffs, sixteen feet long, from the forest trees, and to each hefixed, by means of a thin plate of iron four feet long, a lozenge-shapedpike-head, made by the Bairo smiths under his direction. Thus the headcould not be accidentally broken off, or cut off by the Arabs'scimitars. The men so armed he trained to act with the musketeers. Inclose fighting order the musketeers were drawn up in two ranks, thefront rank kneeling, the rear rank standing, while the pikemen stoodbehind, their pikes projecting in front of the musketeers. In charging,the pikemen led the way, supported by the musketeers with bayonets orclubbed muskets.
Tom was, of course, entirely in the dark as to where the expectedengagement was to be fought--whether in the forest, in the open outsidethe village, or again behind the stockade; but he was determined to beprepared for any contingency. Ill-armed as his force was, he recognizedthat he might have to fight a defensive campaign for a time, trusting towear the enemy out, and to seize a favourable opportunity for taking theoffensive. It was a risky policy with a negro force; he could placefull reliance only on the pikemen and musketeers; the great body of theallies was little better than a rabble, and man for man less dependable,because less used to regular fighting, than the Arab auxiliaries. Buthe hoped that his special troops would be sufficiently well drilled togive a good account of themselves if fighting took place in the open,while in the forest the others could certainly harass the enemy,probably cut off his supplies, ambush him, and attack him at adisadvantage.
All this time Tom had been gleaning various items of information as tothe routes by which the enemy might be expected to come. There was, ofcourse, the path through the forest, along which he himself had beencarried to the village, but he learnt that there were two other possibleways, to the west and east of the direct route. These, h
owever, wouldinvolve the crossing of at least two broad rivers, and the rainy seasonbeing barely over, the streams would be so swollen as to render fordingimpossible.
He would gladly have fortified the approaches to the village had thisbeen possible, but after carefully weighing the pros and cons hereluctantly decided that he must be content to extemporize stockadeswhen the approach of the Arabs was announced. Until the peril wasimminent he could not count upon sufficient assistance from his alliesto enable him to construct defensive works on all the paths by which theexpected invasion might be made, and his own troops were clearlyinsufficient for the purpose.
The long-awaited signal came at length. On the night of November 28, adate which Tom carefully marked in the pocket-diary he had obtained fromHerr Schwab, the faint taps of a drum were heard far away to the north.A few minutes later a distinct roll came from the nearest post. Atdistances of six and three miles the signal drummers had passed on themessage received by them from posts farther afield. Reading the messageby the prearranged code, Tom made out that a small force had beensighted sixty miles from the village. Surmising that this was merely theadvance-guard, he calculated that the main body would take at least fiveor six days to arrive, and he resolved to wait until the morning beforecalling up his levies.
Soon after daybreak a courier came panting into the village, andannounced that the line of runners had transmitted to him the news thata huge force of Arabs was advancing along the forest-path a mile or twoin the rear of the advance-guard.
The village drummers were at once called on to signal the news to theallied chiefs, and runners were despatched to them all confirming theintelligence. The chiefs were each to send their women and childreninto Mwonga under a small escort, with not less than six weeks' supplyof food. The warriors who were used to forest fighting were to musterat the edge of the forest, and await orders from Kuboko. The remainder,men of the plain, with no special skill in woodcraft, and dreading theforest as an unknown region of unimaginable terrors, were to concentrateto the north-east of the village, and hold themselves in readiness tomove in any direction at a moment's notice. By making forced marches,all the fighting-men of the allies had arrived at their appointed placesby the morning of the next day. It was a glorious morning, and, lookinground from the village on the eager host, their spear-heads glitteringin the sunlight, Tom drew good augury, and felt his heart leap withinhim.
His force numbered four thousand one hundred all told, and as yet he waswholly without definite information of the size of the Arab army. Itwas important that every possible means should be taken of worrying andreducing the enemy while marching through the forest, encumbered, as nodoubt they were, with carriers and baggage. They included, Tom feltsure, a very large number of men armed with rifles and muskets, buttheir superiority in this respect would be to a great extent neutralizedamong the trees. His first care, therefore, was to despatch fivehundred of his best forest-fighters, divided into twenty bands oftwenty-five each, into the forest, to dig pits, plant stakes, and employevery device known to them to delay and harass the advance. They werenot to penetrate into the forest for more than thirty miles from theirbase, in order that they might be easily supplied with food, and readilyrecalled if need arose.
Tom's next step was to arrange with the katikiro for the defence of thevillage against a possible flanking attack. He could not be sure thatthe line of the advance now signalled would be the line of the realattack; for all he knew, the Arabs might divide their force, advance intwo directions, and, while making a feint in their immediate front,throw all their strength upon the village, hoping to take it unawares.The katikiro during the last few weeks had proved himself one of themost intelligent and persevering of all Tom's lieutenants, and Tom hadcomplete confidence that his courage and determination would not fail atthe critical moment. To him, therefore, he entrusted the defence of thevillage. He gave him a thousand of the plainsmen, of whom sixty werearmed with muskets, and also the whole of the cadet corps, who, beingyoung and hot-headed, he thought would be all the better for therestraint of the stockade. The force was, he knew, quite inadequate tohold the extensive line of fortifications if the place was seriouslyassaulted; but it could, he hoped, hold its own behind the stockade fora day or two, allowing time for Tom himself to return to its assistance.
Before leaving the village, Tom took the katikiro aside to give himfinal instructions. Msala was talking to the medicine-man at the time,and the latter scarcely attempted to conceal a malignant scowl as Tomapproached. He moved reluctantly away, evidently curious to learn whatTom's business with the katikiro was.
"Msala," said Tom, as soon as he judged Mabruki to be out of ear-shot,"I have given you an important post, because I know that you arefearless, and because I trust you. The village, and the lives of thethousands of people in it, are in your hands. You must on no accountleave your post unless you receive a direct order from me. If I wantyou to leave it, I shall send a messenger to you, and he will bring withhim, as a proof that his message is genuine, a leaf out of mypocket-book with this mark upon it." He drew a circle, with twodiameters intersecting at right-angles. "You see that? Whatevermessenger comes to you from me will have a leaf like that, and I willleave this with you, so that no possible mistake can be made. Do youunderstand?"
"Yes," said Msala, his face aglow with the importance of his duties; "Iwill obey the words of Kuboko, and he shall find that I am as bold as alion and as wise as an elephant."
"Very well then. Now I myself am going into the forest with my pickedmen. You may not see me for many days; but do not get down-hearted.Let us hope that when you and I meet again we shall have made ouraccount with the enemy."
Tom Burnaby: A Story of Uganda and the Great Congo Forest Page 18