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WARFARE IN THE AGE OF EXPLORATION, 1855 - 1876SOME SCENARIOS FOR WARGAMING DARKEST AFRICA

BY CHRIS PEERS

I suspect that one reason why the period of European exploration in Africa has been so long neglected by wargamers is the general belief that thefighting was too one-sided to be interesting. We know all about the massacres inflicted by modern weaponry on even the best organised native

states, like the Zulus and the Mahdists of the Sudan. So what chance could the primitive peoples of Central Africa have had against thefirepower of a well-equipped expedition? But not all the inhabitants of the region were helpless villagers armed with bows and arrows. TropicalAfrica was also home to powerful states and well-led armies, which could come as a nasty shock to explorers accustomed to frightening off thesavages with a few shots. Two such instances are the subjects of the next couple of scenarios in this series.

The attitude of European explorers to the slave trade - the abolition ofwhich was supposed to be one of the main reasons they were in Africa- was in reality somewhat flexible. From reading the pronouncementsof the religious and humanitarian organisations at home, the last thingyou would expect would be to find white men allying themselves withArab slavers against the natives. In fact this happened frequently, for

the simple reason that they could not hope to make much progressthrough the political chaos of Eastern and Central Africa without theco-operation of the Sultan of Zanzibar and his nominal subjects in theinterior. Although in fact the whites did not take much of an active partin the fight which we will look at here, their presence with the Arabarmy provides a basis for several plausible what if scenariosinvolving such an unholy alliance.

On the first of his African expeditions - the famous one in search of Dr.Livingstone, which set out from Zanzibar early in 1871 - H. M.Stanley found himself staying with the Arabs at Tabora, in the middleof what is now Tanzania. This settlement formed the headquarters fortheir ivory- and slave-trading operations on the plateau between thecoast and the Great Lakes. At the time the Arabs were at war withMirambo of the Nyamwezi tribe, the leader of native resistance in the

region, who was already earning a reputation as a Black Bonaparte.Stanley realised that Mirambo was likely to be suspicious of allstrangers, especially those arriving from Zanzibar, and that while theNyamwezi leader controlled the country further west, the expeditionwould not be allowed to pass. So when the Arabs set out for a

showdown with their enemy, he agreed to join them.

Ambush at WilyankuruThe combined force which marched out from the rendezvous atMfuta, near Tabora, on 3rd August 1871 was altogether 2255 strong.Stanley, in his How I Found Livingstone, gives us a detailed

breakdown. There were the contingents of 16 Arab leaders, ranging insize from 25 to 250; 125 assorted half-castes and Wangwana(Wangwana, or freemen, was the term used for the Arabsdetribalised East African auxiliaries. Despite the name, many were infact slaves); the 50 men with the Stanley expedition, about 25 ofwhom were armed askaris; 800 Nyamwezi warriors opposed toMirambo; and 300 men under other tribal chiefs. We are told that 1500of these men possessed guns: flint-lock muskets, German andFrench double-barrels, some English Enfields, and AmericanSpringfields. This leaves 755 spearmen, who account for most of the1100 native warriors, so we can assume that all the others were musketarmed, as well as about a third of the natives. The more modern gunswould probably have been in the hands of the wealthy Arabs, with theAfricans having to make do with old flintlocks.

Most of Stanleys Askaris were armed with flintlock muskets, buttheir leader Sidi Bombay had been provided with a good muzzle-loading rifle. The party also had an impressive armoury of more up-to-date weapons, including 1 elephant rifle, 1 double-barrelledsmoothbore breechloader, 3 other single-shot breechloaders, 2

1). THE FIGHTS AT WILYANKURU AND TABORA, AUGUST 1871

PART TWO: BITING OFF MORE THAN THEY COULD CHEW, 1871 - 1872

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breechloading revolvers, and 2 16-shot repeaters - a Henry and aWinchester. Stanleys favourite weapon for defensive purposes (ie.for shooting people rather than big game) was the Winchester. Hissurviving white companion, Shaw, gets a very bad press in Stanleysaccount, and if we take this at face value we will write him off asutterly demoralised and useless in a fight. However, Stanley wasnotoriously unfair to his colleagues, and I would prefer for wargamepurposes to give poor Shaw the benefit of the doubt. He wouldpresumably have had his pick of the rest of the modern guns.

Altogether this was an impressive force by African standards, and itleft Mfuto in good spirits, with waving banners denoting the variouscommanders, with booming horns, and the roar of fifty brass drums.The following day it attacked the palisaded village of Zimbizo, whichfell after a short fight. The Arabs and their allies then advancedtowards Wilyankuru, where Mirambo himself was said to be based.By now, though, the attackers were becoming overconfident. Theydivided their forces and spread out to plunder the countryside. Just 500men under Soud bin Sayd took on the task of attacking Wilyankuru.The party included about 20 Arabs, and most of Stanleys askaris.Stanley had forbidden them to join in, for reasons which he does notstate, but they had disobeyed orders in the hope of getting a share ofthe loot. We are not told who the rest of the 500 were, but presumablythey consisted of Wangwana and armed slaves drawn from thecontingents of other Arabs.

Mirambo was indeed in Wilyankuru, with several hundred of histroops. When the Arabs attacked on 6th August, he led his men out ofthe village on the far side, circled around and hid them in the long grasson either side of the trail leading back to Zimbizo. Souds troops lootedthe place and staggered homewards with more than 100 tusks of ivory,60 bales of cloth and several hundred slaves. Then Mirambo sprangthe ambush. His men rose out of the grass and launched a volley ofspears. Soud, who was carrying a double-barrelled gun, shot downtwo of them before a spear went right through him. There wasimmediate panic, as Soud's men dropped their loot and fled. All of theArabs were killed on the spot, as were many of their followers.

When the news of the defeat reached the main Arab camp it caused

consternation. The whole army fled back to Mfuto, including all butten of Stanleys men. Stanley of course had to follow, but he wasunderstandably bitter about being left in the lurch. He particularlysingled out the base and mean Shaw, and Ulimengo, the standardbearer of the expedition, who had exulted in his weapons and in ournumbers, but who now suddenly revealed an unexpected talent forspeed marching. The journey up from Mfuto had taken eleven hours,but Ulimengo broke all records by doing the reverse trip in six.

Attack on TaboraMirambo followed up his victory with an advance on Tabora. TheArab leader Khamis bin Abdullah marched out to meet him with onlyfive fellow Arabs and 80 armed slaves, but the slaves fled, leavingKhamis and his companions to be surrounded and shot down. On 22ndAugust Mirambo swept into Tabora with 2000 men, while 1000 alliedWatuta tribesmen attacked from another direction. In the confusedfighting which followed, the Arabs inflicted about 200 casualties forthe loss of only 26 men, but Mirambo captured the town and burnt it.Stanley and his party, reinforced by a hundred or so refugees fromTabora, were occupying a large rectangular building or tembe in thenearby settlement of Kwihara, which they quickly prepared fordefence in case the enemy descended on them also. In How I FoundLivingstone, Stanley says that To-morrow Mirambo has threatenedthat he will come to Kwihara. I hope to God he will come, and if hecomes within range of an American rifle, I shall see what virtue lies inAmerican lead.

But despite a very anxious day on the 23rd, Mirambo did not come.Instead he retired to feast his men on a large herd of stolen cattle. Thefollowing month the Nyamwezi warlord advanced again, attackedMfuto, but was driven off. The war settled down to a stalemate,leaving the Arabs to their indecisive councils of war, and Stanley toplan the next stage of his march to Lake Tanganyika..

Mirambos ArmyWho were the men who had inspired such terror in the arrogantZanzibaris? It is worth looking in a little more detail at the army withwhich Mirambo dominated a large part of East Africa for nearly 20years, since it is likely to be unfamiliar to most wargamers. The nameMirambo is said to mean something like heaps of corpses. He was ahereditary chief of the Nyamwezi, but he had lived for a time as anoutlaw, and also had close connections with the Ngoni, who hadmigrated up from the south in the 1840s and brought with them a style

of warfare influenced by the Zulus. In the mid 1860s, when Mirambowas consolidating his power, the area of what is now Tanzania wasfalling into chaos, largely as a result of Arab incursions. Groups of de-tribalised young hooligans known as Ruga-Ruga roamed thecountryside living by robbery, gradually coalescing into armiesaround those warlords powerful enough to offer them a promisingmilitary career.In 1876 Stanley was to encounter Mirambo again - this time as afriend, for the chief had recently made peace with the Arabs of Tabora.The report of Stanleys scouts, quoted in Through the DarkContinent, is instructive:Mabruki said: We have seen Mirambo... We have beheld the Ruga-Ruga, and there are many of them, and all are armed with Gumeh-Gumeh (ie. muskets). About a hundred are clothed in crimson cloth

and white shirts, like our Wangwana. Mirambo is not an old man.Kacheche said: Mirambo...is a very nice man, well dressed... Hewears the turban, fez, and cloth coat of an Arab, and carries a scimitar.He also wears slippers, and his clothes under his coat are very white. Ishould say he has about a thousand and a half men with him, and theyare all armed with muskets or double-barrelled guns. Mirambo hasthree young men carrying his guns for him. Truly, Mirambo is a greatman!

Stanley later met three officers of the warlords bodyguard, whom hedescribes as handsomely dressed in fine red and blue cloth coats, andsnowy white shirts, with ample turbans around their heads. Apartfrom this small bodyguard, however, the Ruga-Ruga were notuniformed. Red cloaks, feathered head-dresses, ivory and copperbangles, and various items of Arab and tribal dress would have been

common. Mirambo himself was bearded, and must have looked verylike an Arab Sheikh. Stanley said that there seemed nothingremarkable about him except his steady calm gaze. He and hisprincipal officer were said to be distinguishable from theirfollowers by the umbrellas which they carried.

In 1876 Mirambo actually talked with Stanley, and shared with himsome of the secrets of his success. He informed him that he preferredto recruit boys or young men for his army, as being unencumberedwith thoughts of wives or children they were readier to risk their lives:

In all my wars with the Arabs, it was an army of youths that gave mevictory, boys without beards. Fifteen of my young men died one daybecause I said I must have a certain red cloth that was thrown down asa challenge. No, no, give me youths for war in the open field, and men

for the stockaded village.

Mirambo was a strong believer in the value of firearms, and he madeevery effort to acquire as many as possible by trade or war. The greatmajority would have been old flintlock muskets or double-barrelledsmoothbore sporting guns. At times, when ammunition was scarce,the Ruga-Ruga were reduced to using these weapons as improvisedshotguns, firing stones and bits of copper wire. However, especiallyearly in his career, there must have been many men in Mirambosarmy - especially local tribal levies - who were unable to obtain guns.Individualists like the Ruga-Ruga would in any case presumably haveequipped themselves with whatever weapons they felt mostcomfortable with. It is noteworthy that spears were used in theambush at Wilyankuru, even though the army had plenty of firearms.

This may be an unusual and exotic army, but the figure problem iseasily solved. In the Foundry Darkest Africa range there is a pack ofeight Ruga-Ruga Characters, which are just about my favourites ofthe whole lot to date. By the time you read this there will be two morepacks, making a total of 24 Ruga-Ruga in all. You could also mix in

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some of the more irregular-looking askaris, a few Zanzibaris withAfrican features (including one to represent Mirambo himself), andperhaps do some head-swapconversions to give somemusket-armed tribesmen thefeather head-dresses from thespearmen. As many of theFoundry figures do not havecloaks, adding these with foil

would be another way to varytheir appearance. A small unitmight be uniformed, asdescribed above, in white shirtsand possibly turbans, and redcloths worn like skirts aroundthe waist. Colours mentioned inall accounts are red, blue andwhite - see Mark Copplestonespainting guide in WI 131 formore ideas.

The same source will providedetails of the appearance of theZanzibaris and of Stanleys

askaris. Blue, red, and white-robed soldiers are mentionedin the attack on Zimbizo. Aninteresting addition to the allied force would be the American flagwhich Ulimengo carried at the head of Stanleys contingent.

The GameThere are at least two obvious wargaming scenarios here. The first isthe attack on Wilyankuru, which would be ideal for a large-scaleskirmish or mainstream game. The important point here of course isfor the umpire not to allow the players to recognise the scenario. TheArabs should not know that they are about to be ambushed. TheMirambo player, of course, could opt to defend the village in theconventional way - it might be interesting to see whether he would doas well as his historical prototype.

The second gaming possibility is the expected attack on Stanleystembe at Kwihara. This did not actually take place, but if it had, withsome 150 men defending against 2,000 of Mirambos warriors, it

would have had the makings of an alternative Rorkes Drift. Twodifferences from that more famous battle are worth pointing out,

though: the Ruga-Ruga werebetter equipped with firearms,and more skilled at using themthan the Zulus; but tocompensate, the "tembe" seemsfrom Stanleys description tohave been a much better

defensive position.

A tembe was a large building inthe shape of a hollow rectangle,enclosing an open courtyard.Such buildings were designedspecifically as refuges in case ofattack. It had a flat roof - theywere usually thatched - and claywalls three feet thick, throughwhich Stanleys men had boredloopholes for their guns. Allnearby vegetation and hutswhich might obstruct their fieldof fire had been removed, and

rifle pits had been dug all roundoutside the walls. Inside, thetembe was divided into a

number of rooms, all of which would have to be taken one by one oncean attacker had broken in. Stanley says that without boasting, I do notthink that 10,000 Africans could take it, though a body of 400 or 500Europeans could easily do it... But three tembes had already fallen toMirambo at Tabora. Admittedly, they were not so well prepared, nordefended by Stanleys firepower. But Mirambo had beenunderestimated before, and there is always that thatched roof toconsider...

SourcesStanleys account of this episode is in:H. M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone, London, 1872.

For details of his 1876 meeting with Mirambo, see:H. M. Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, London, 1890.R. Stanley and A. Neames, eds., The Expedition Diaries of H. M.Stanley, London, 1961.

This campaign has more in common with later colonial campaigns ofconquest than the other actions discussed in this series. Nevertheless ithas been largely ignored by colonial wargamers - probably becauseimperialist power in this case was not European but African. In 1870the Khedive Ismail of Egypt had hired the explorer Samuel Baker totake charge of an expedition to annex the upper Nile valley - basically

what is now Equatoria Province of Sudan - and suppress the slavetrade there. In April 1871, after an epic struggle through the Nileswamps, Baker and his little army arrived at the remote missionstation at Gondokoro, from where he had set out to explore LakeAlbert eight years earlier. With him were his wife, Florence, and hisnephew, Lt. J. Baker, R. N..

The Invasion of UnyoroOn arrival at Gondokoro - which Baker renamed Ismailia - theexpedition comprised 1,200 Egyptian and Sudanese soldiers. Fromthese Baker selected a bodyguard of 48 picked men, with previousmilitary experience, whom he armed with Snider rifles. They wereknown as the forty thieves, and their commander pays fulsometribute to their discipline and intelligence, to which he laterconsidered that his whole party owed its survival. (They were

distinctively uniformed in scarlet shirts, and proved so successful inskirmishing against the Bari tribesmen in the Sudan that the sight ofthis uniform created panic among the enemy. So Baker equipped hisentire force in similar shirts, obviously hoping that their reputationwould spread.)

After some skirmishing against the Bari and other tribes, Bakermanaged to achieve a temporary pacification of the Equatoria region.He then decided to push on further south. The expedition had not beenprovided with any specific territorial objectives, and so he wastechnically not exceeding his orders when early in 1872 he decided tomarch into the kingdom of Unyoro - in what is now northern Uganda -

which he had visited on his previous expedition. But he was certainlypushing his luck. By this time the Egyptians had deserted, and he hadno more than 500 men left. After detachments had been left behind toguard the lines of communication, including a rearguard of 100 men atFatiko, only 112 actually set out to conquer Unyoro. This number,however, included the elite company, the forty thieves; the otherswere picked Sudanese who had gained valuable experience againstthe Bari.

The Clash at MasindiIn May 1872 the party arrived at Masindi, the Unyoro capital, whichwas not far from Lake Albert. Baker had not always been on friendlyterms with the last king of Unyoro, and he now took an instant disliketo his successor, Kabba Rega: a gauche, awkward, undignified lout

of twenty years of age, who thought himself a great monarch. He wascowardly, cruel, cunning and treacherous to the last degree. Thisverdict was quite complimentary by the standards of most of Baker'sopinions on Africans, but it turned out to be a spectacularunderestimate. Kabba Rega was to become a master of guerrillawarfare, and one of the great heroes of African resistance to European

2). THE RETREAT FROM MASINDI, 14th TO 24th JUNE 1872

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conquest. His performance was not terribly impressive in this, his firstcampaign, but during his long career he was to fight against not onlyBaker but Stanley, Gordon and Lugard, as well as his more powerfulAfrican neighbours, and still managed to remain in power until the

British captured him in 1899. Like Mirambo, he was no pushover.

Baker - who tended to be contemptuous of savages, as he invariablycalled the Africans - had in fact shown amazing arrogance insupposing that he could take over a major African state with hishandful of soldiers. By his own admission Although the natives ofUnyoro are inferior to the Baris as warriors, they are far moredangerous, as that extensive country is thoroughly organised... in caseof war, every Chief of a district arrives at the head-quarters with an

army, an army called suddenly by the war-drum, and it is mostextraordinary to see the celerity with which these people collect. Hethought the total numbers available to the King impossible to guess.Most were spearmen or archers - the latter shooting poisoned arrows -but there were also a few with muskets, 50 of whom formed the kingsbodyguard.

Baker coolly annexed the whole country to the Khedives empire. Heraised the Turkish flag, and commenced work on a small timber fort.This activity was obviously provocative, but Baker expresses surprisethat Kabba Rega was upset by it. The latter kept up an appearance offriendship, and even provided Baker with 300 porters, but meanwhilehe was secretly summoning his warriors. To soften up the unwelcomevisitors, he tried to poison them with a gift of dodgy plantain cider. Hispeople later claimed that the poisoning had been accidental, and that

the drink was simply too strong for the Sudanese, but this seemsunlikely. The Sudanese had the reputation of being able to drinkanything. At any rate, the stratagem failed. 40 of Bakers men becameill, but the remainder were warned in time, and avoided drinking thecider. Their leader immediately quartered the sick inside the fort anddeployed the remaining 60 outside on alert, in readiness for theexpected follow-up.

At five oclock on the morning of 7th June Baker was walking up anddown outside the fort, accompanied by a bugler and a sergeant.Suddenly he heard shots, and ordered the bugler to sound the alarm.The 60 men on duty immediately formed themselves into a square. Nosooner had the square been formed than a huge mass of Unyorowarriors (Baker estimated their number at 8000) launched an attack.Some musketeers, who had approached to within a few yards under

cover of some castor-oil bushes, fired a volley which killed the

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sergeant and another man at Bakers side, and then the spearmencharged. The result surprised even Baker: When that first rush wasmade, it was extraordinary to see how impossible it appeared fornatives in masses to produce any effect against Snider rifles. Theywere cut down in the high grass in all directions.

The Sudanese then fought their way out through the town, with themen armed with Sniders clearing the way, while the others set fire to

the huts on either side to block an attack on the flanks. Baker,incidentally, swears by what he calls capped blue lights, whichwould ignite a native hut much faster than an ordinary firestick, andwhich he highly recommends for colonial warfare. They wereobviously some sort of pyrotechnic device allied to the more commonblue signal flares, which could be struck on the butt of a gun and burntwith a very hot flame, but he does not explain exactly what they weremade of.

The RetreatThe expeditionary force escaped under cover of the smoke, leavingmany enemy dead behind and obliging Kabba Rega to make newdiplomatic overtures, claiming that the fight was the result of amisunderstanding. But Bakers position was clearly untenable, and he

knew that he would have to retreat. Another failed assassinationattempt against him forced him to act. He had almost no food, andmost of the porters hired from Unyoro had been sent back to his baseat Fatiko to bring up supplies and reinforcements (it transpired thatKabba Rega had given them instructions to murder the rearguardbefore it could link up with Baker). In fact the retreat would have beenimpossible without the foresight of Mrs. Baker, who had put aside asecret store of flour in iron boxes for such an emergency, hiding it

from the men for fear that they would be wasteful if they knew thatthere was a reserve supply.

Even so, the operation was a daunting prospect. The distance back toFatiko was about 100 miles, most of it through grass ten feet high,which would give cover to any enemy lying in wait. Heavy loads ofammunition and other necessities would have to be carried, eventhough they burnt everything which was not essential, including alarge supply of brandy and Lt.Bakers naval uniform. There were onlytwo horses, loaded with luggage, and one donkey, which was carryinga wounded man. Everyone else - including Mrs. Baker, whose feetwere badly blistered - had to walk. The whole country was alive withhostile warriors. And by now Baker had discovered the plot to murderhis rearguard, but had no way of warning them. There was noguarantee that they would find anyone alive at Fatiko when they got

there.

The order of march on the retreat was as follows:16 men with Sniders and a bugler, under Colonel Abd-el-Kadir.The Bakers, their servants and the ammunition, guarded by 10 menwith Sniders.The bulk of the troops, with muskets, and a few Snidersinterspersed.A rearguard of 16 men with Sniders and another bugler, under aCaptain.

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The march took ten days altogether, and by a miracle Baker lost onlyten dead and eleven wounded. The Unyoro warriors ambushed themrepeatedly with volleys of spears from the tall grass, but for somereason never did the obvious thing and attacked the expedition atnight, when they would surely have been victorious. Probably theywere more than happy just to speed them on their way, without riskingunnecessary casualties. They constructed false trails to lead thecolumn astray, and at river crossings and similar spots they preparedambush sites in advance. A large open space was cleared behind a

screen of reeds or grass, so that the warriors could get a good run-up tothrow their spears while remaining invisible from the trail. Neitherside could see the other, and Bakers men responded to the volleys byfiring blindly into the grass. Sometimes Baker would fire an explosiveshell from one of his elephant guns and hear the explosion as themissile hit something - a man or a tree - but would have no ideawhether he had hit his target or not. Several of his soldiers who werestruck by spears were saved from injury by their knapsacks.

It was possible to see only five men at a time as the trail wound throughthe grass, but the column was kept in good order by means of buglecalls. On 18th June they stopped to rest in a banana grove on a hill, andtook the opportunity to set an ambush of their own. The men waited incomplete silence until a group of Unyoro warriors, who had beenfollowing them in the hope of picking off stragglers, blundered right

into them. Two of the enemy were shot, and Baker was disgusted whenhis men brought in one of the bodies and ate the liver, raw. Apparentlythey had become frustrated by all the firing at invisible targets, andbelieved that this act would magically give them the power to kill theirenemies even without seeing them. We are not told whether or not itworked.

At last, on the banks of the Victoria Nile, Baker joined up with a chiefcalled Rionga, who was a bitter rival of Kabba Rega. Thus safe frompursuit, he pressed on to Fatiko, where he found that the plan tomassacre the rearguard had miscarried. There he was attacked by agroup of 270 slave-traders, whom the forty thieves quickly routed.This victory seems to have restored his prestige in that area, and he metwith no more opposition. Shortly afterwards the Bakers returned toEngland. Kabba Rega claimed a great victory; so did Baker; the

Khedive had a whole new Central African empire, at least on paper;and the slave-traders were soon back in action as the Sudan relapsedinto anarchy. So everyone was happy - except of course for theSudanese, whom the expedition had been supposedly sent to help.

Wargaming the CampaignThere are several wargaming options here. The fight at Masindi was abit one-sided, but a scenario in which an expedition is attacked in atown and has to fight its way out has obvious possibilities. However, I

think that the retreat to Fatiko will present even more interestingtactical problems. This is obviously the kind of thing that RichardBrooks Drums Along the Watusi (published in MiniatureWargames #9: see Part One) was designed for, with a column tryingto get from one side of the table to the other while random ambusherskeep popping up on the way.

The ArmiesContemporary pictures show the warriors of Unyoro wearing a sort oftoga made of cloth or animal skins, tied over the left shoulder. Thebonosoora or kings bodyguard was an elite corps of spearmen,over 1000 strong, which was distinguished by leopard skin togas withthe tail hanging down at the back, and a strange hairstyle in the shapeof a pair of horns. Baker remarks several times on the Satanicappearance which this gave them. Warriors carried oval shields,which sometimes had a prominent conical boss, and spears about sixfeet in length. There were also archers, but these seem to have beenprovided only by certain districts of the kingdom, and they feature farless prominently than the spearmen in Bakers account of the fighting.Failing figures in togas, you could produce an acceptable Unyoroarmy using the standard Foundry Darkest Africa spearmen andarchers.

Bakers men wore an Egyptian-style uniform of tasselled fez andscarlet jacket, white Zouave trousers, gaiters, and shoes or sandals.Egyptian regular figures would do nicely. Foundry produce a Samuel,but as yet not a Florence Baker. Of the hundred men at Masindi, the 48forty thieves were armed with Snider rifles, and the rest withsmoothbore muskets. (Baker in fact recommends retaining a numberof the latter because of their effectiveness in close range fighting). Allthese weapons were fitted with bayonets. Some three-pounder Halesrockets also remained from the stocks brought from Egypt: Bakercomments in his Experience in Savage Warfare that the rocketswould have been ideal if they had had explosive warheads, but as itwas they were basically just fireworks, and their effect was mainlypsychological. There were also a couple of elephant rifles firingexplosive picrate of potash shells, which made a spectacular mess ofanyone they hit and had a drastic morale effect on everybody else in

the vicinity. These guns were carried on the march by the Bakersservants.

SourcesSir Samuel White Baker, Ismailia - A Narrative of the Expedition toCentral Africa for the Suppression of the Slave Trade, London, 1874.Sir Samuel White Baker Pacha, Experience of Savage Warfare (textof a lecture given in December 1873), reprinted by Pallas Armata,1995.

Pygmy Chief. Painting by Kevin Dallimore