I had quite determined that these scoundrels should not rob me of my own arms and ammunition, if I could prevent it.<\/p>\n
The drum beat, and the vakeel himself went into the men’s quarters and endeavored to prevail upon them to answer the call. At length fifteen assembled in line; the others were nowhere to be found. The locks of the arms were secured by mackintosh as ordered. It was thus impossible for any man to fire at me until he should have released his locks.<\/p>\n
Upon assembling in line I ordered them immediately to lay down their arms. This, with insolent looks of defiance, they refused to do. “Down with your guns thus moment,” I shouted, “sons of dogs!” And at the sharp click of the locks, as I quickly cocked the rifle that I held in my hands, the cowardly mutineers widened their line and wavered. Some retreated a few paces to the rear; others sat down and laid their guns on the ground, while the remainder slowly dispersed, and sat in twos or singly, under the various trees about eighty paces distant. Taking advantage of their indecision, I immediately rose and ordered my vakeel and Richarn to disarm them as they were thus scattered. Foreseeing that the time had arrived for actual physical force, the cowards capitulated, agreeing to give up their arms and ammunition if I would give them their written discharge. I disarmed them immediately, and the vakeel having written a discharge for the fifteen men present, I wrote upon each paper the word “mutineer” above my signature. None of them being able to read, and this being written in English, they unconsciously carried the evidence of their own guilt, which I resolved to punish should I ever find them on my return to Khartoum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had quite determined that these scoundrels should not rob me of my own arms and ammunition, if I could prevent it. The drum beat, and the vakeel himself went into the men’s quarters and endeavored to prevail upon them…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[4],"yoast_head":"\n