his camp, while he went off on an
expedition on his own account. He succeeded by depriving them of their
porters, and then marched out with his army--drums and fifes playing,
colours flying, guns firing, officers riding, some on donkeys, others on
cows. On the 31st the army returned, after having burned down and
plundered three villages, laden with ivory and driving in four slave
girls and thirty head of cattle.

A few days afterwards another example of Turkish barbarity came under
their notice. The head man of a village arrived with a large tusk of
ivory with which to ransom his daughter. Fortunately for him it had
been considered by the Turks wise to keep on terms with so influential a
man; and therefore, on receiving the tusk, Mahamed gave back the damsel,
adding a cow to seal their friendship.

At length, weary of Mahamed's procrastination, on the 11th of January
Speke ordered the march, telling Mahamed he might follow if he wished.

At first the villagers, supposing that the travellers were Turks, made
their escape in every direction, carrying what stores and cattle they
could; while others pulled down their huts, and marched off with the
materials to a distant site, to escape from their persecutors.

The people do this because the Turks, when they arrive at a village,
often pull down the huts and carry off the roofs to form a camp for
themselves outside the enclosure.

They also without ceremony rob the corn-stores, and should the owner
remonstrate, he is knocked down with the butt of a musket, and told he
is fortunate to escape being shot.

Finding that Speke was determined to move, Mahamed broke up his camp,
the whole party, including porters to carry the ivory tusks, amounting
to nearly a thousand men.

The Turks, as they marched along, helped themselves from the half-filled
bins of the unfortunate natives, who were starving, while the chiefs at
the different villages were quarrelling among themselves.

One night a party of warriors from another place appeared in front of
the village near which they were encamped, and the next morning the
villagers turned out and killed two of them. The enemy, as they
retired, cried out that as soon as the guns were gone the villagers must
look out for themselves.

Speke and Grant, however, kept their own pots boiling by shooting
antelopes and other game. The Turks ate anything they could get hold
of. Greatly to the disgust of the Seedees, they devoured a croco