 CHAPTER I. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. MY INSTRUCTIONS TO FIND AND RELIEVE LIVINGSTONE. On the sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord, 1869, I was in Madrid, fresh from the carnage at Valencia. At 10 a.m. Jacobo, at number Blanc Cayet de la Cruz, handed me a telegram. It read, Come to Paris on Important Business. The telegram was from Mr. James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the young manager of the New York Herald. Down came my pictures from the walls of my apartments on the second floor. Into my trunk swept my books and souvenirs, my clothes were hastily collected, some half washed, some from the clothesline half dry, and after a couple of hours of hasty hard work, my portmanteaus were strapped up and labeled Paris. At 3 p.m. I was on my way, and being obliged to stop at Bayonne a few hours, did not arrive at Paris until the following night. I went straight to the grand hotel and knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett's room. Come in, I heard a voice say. Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed. Who are you? he asked. My name is Stanley, I answered. Ah, yes, sit down. I have important business on hand for you. After throwing over his shoulders his robe de chambre Mr. Bennett asked. Where do you think Livingstone is? I really do not know, sir. Do you think he is alive? He may be, and he may not be, I answered. Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found, and I am going to send you to find him. What, said I, do you really think I can find Dr. Livingstone? Do you mean me to go to Central Africa? Yes, I mean that you shall go and find him wherever you hear that he is, and to get what news of him you can, and perhaps, delivering himself thoughtfully and deliberately, the old man may be in want. Take enough with you to help him should he require it. Of course you will act according to your own plans and do what you think best, but find Livingstone. Said I, wondering at the cool order of sending one to Central Africa to search for a man whom I, in common with almost all other men, believed to be dead, have you considered seriously the great expense you are likely to incur on account of this little journey? What will it cost? he asked abruptly. Burke and Speaks' journey to Central Africa cost between three thousand and five thousand pounds, and I fear it cannot be done under twenty five hundred pounds. Well, I will tell you what you will do. Draw a thousand pounds now, and when you have gone through that, draw another thousand, and when that is spent, draw another thousand, and when you have finished that, draw another thousand, and so on, but find Livingstone. Surprised but not confused at the order, for I knew that Mr. Bennett, when once he had made up his mind, was not easily drawn aside from his purpose, I yet thought, seeing it was such a gigantic scheme, that he had not quite considered in his own mind the pros and cons of the case. I said, I have heard that should your father die, you will sell the herald and retire from business. Whoever told you that is wrong, for there is not money enough in New York City to buy the New York herald. My father has made it a great paper, but I mean to make it greater. I mean that it shall be a newspaper in the true sense of the word. I mean that it shall publish whatever news will be interesting to the world, at no matter what cost. After that, said I, I have nothing more to say. Do you mean me to go straight on to Africa to search for Dr. Livingstone? No, I wish you to go to the inauguration of the Suez Canal first, and then proceed up the Nile. I hear Baker is about starting for Upper Egypt. Find out what you can about his expedition, and as you go up, describe as well as possible whatever is interesting for tourists, and then write up a guide, a practical one, for Lower Egypt. Tell us about whatever is worth seeing and how to see it. Then you might as well go to Jerusalem. I hear Captain Warren is making some interesting discoveries there. Then visit Constantinople and find out about that trouble between the Kediv and the Sultan. Then, let me see, you might as well visit the Crimea and those old battlegrounds, then go across the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea. I hear there is a Russian expedition bound for Kiva. From thence you may get through Persia to India. You could write an interesting letter from Persepolis. If your dead will be close on your way to India, suppose you go there and write up something about the Euphrates Valley Railway. Then when you have come to India, you can go after Livingstone. Probably you will hear by that time that Livingstone is on his way to Zanzibar, but if not, go into the interior and find him. If alive, get what news of his discoveries you can, and if you find he is dead, bring all possible proofs of his being dead. That is all. Good night and God be with you. Good night, sir, I said. What it is in the power of human nature to do I will do, and on such an errand as I go upon, God will be with me. I lodged with young Edward King, who is making such a name in New England. He was just the man who would have delighted to tell the journal he was engaged upon, what young Mr. Bennet was doing, and what errand I was bound upon. I should have liked to exchange opinions with him upon the probable results of my journey, but I dared not do so. Though oppressed with the great task before me, I had to appear as if only going to be present at the Suez Canal. Young King followed me to the express train bound for Marseille, and at the station we parted, he to go and read the newspapers at Bull's Reading Room, I to Central Africa, and—who knows? There is no need to recapitulate what I did before going to Central Africa. I went up the Nile and saw Mr. Higginbotham, chief engineer in Baker's expedition at Filet, and was the means of preventing a duel between him and a mad young Frenchman who wanted to fight Mr. Higginbotham with pistols, because that gentleman resented the idea of being taken for an Egyptian through wearing a Fez cap. I had a talk with Captain Warren at Jerusalem, and descended one of the pits with a sergeant of engineers to see the marks of the Tyrion workmen on the foundation stones of the Temple of Solomon. I visited the mosques of Stambul with the minister-resident of the United States and the American Consul-General. I traveled over the Crimean battlegrounds with King Lake's glorious books for reference in my hand. I dined with the widow of General Leprandi at Odessa. I saw the Arabian traveler Paul Grave at Trebizond and Baron Nikolay, the civil governor of the Caucasus, at Tiflis. I lived with the Russian ambassador while at Tehran, and wherever I went through Persia I received the most hospitable welcome from the gentlemen of the Indo-European Telegraph Company. And following the examples of many illustrious men, I wrote my name upon one of the Persepolitan monuments. In the month of August, 1870, I arrived in India. On the 12th of October I sailed on the bark Pali from Bombay to Mauritius. As the Pali was a slow sailor, the passage lasted 37 days. On board this bark was a William Lawrence Farquhar, hailing from Leith, Scotland, in the capacity of First Mate. He was an excellent navigator, and thinking he might be useful to me, I employed him, his pay to begin from the date we should leave Zanzibar for Burgamayo. As there was no opportunity for getting to Zanzibar Direct, I took ship to Seychelles. Three or four days after arriving at Mahi, one of the Seychelles group, I was fortunate enough to get a passage for myself, William Lawrence Farquhar, and an Arab boy from Jerusalem who was to act as interpreter, on board an American whaling-vessel bound for Zanzibar, at which port we arrived on the 6th of January, 1871. I have skimmed over my travels thus far, because these do not concern the reader. They led over many lands, but this book is only a narrative of my search after Livingstone, the great African traveler. It is in a carrion flight of journalism, I confess, some even have called it chaotic. But this is a word I can now refute, as will be seen before the reader arrives at the Finney. I have used the word soldiers in this book. The armed escort a traveler engages to accompany him into East Africa is composed of free black men, natives of Zanzibar, or freed slaves from the interior who call themselves a scary, an Indian name which translated means soldiers. They are armed and equipped like soldiers, though they engage themselves also as servants, but it would be more pretentious in me to call them servants than to use the word soldiers. And as I have been more in the habit of calling them soldiers than my watuma, servants, this habit has proved too much to be overcome. I have therefore allowed the word soldiers to appear accompanied, however, with this apology. But it must be remembered that I am writing a narrative of my own adventures and travels, and that until I meet Livingstone I presume the greatest interest is attached to myself, my marches, my troubles, my thoughts, and my expressions. Yet though I may sometimes write my expedition, or my caravan, it by no means follows that I irrigate myself to this right. For it must be distinctly understood that it is the New York Herald's expedition, and that I am only charged with its command by Mr. James Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the New York Herald, as a salaried employee of that gentleman. One thing more. I have adopted the narrative form of relating the story of the search on account of the greater interest it appears to possess over the diary form, and I think that in this manner I avoid the great fault of repetition for which some travelers have been severely criticized. Zanzibar On the morning of the 6th January, 1871, we were sailing through the channel that separates the fruitful island of Zanzibar from Africa. The highlands of the continent loomed like the lengthening shadow in the gray of dawn. The island lay on our left, distant but a mile, coming out of its shroud of foggy folds, bit by bit as the day advanced, until it finally rose clearly into view, as fair in appearance as the fairest of the gems of creation. It appeared low but not flat. There were gentle elevations cropping hither and yawn above the languid but graceful tops of the cocoa trees that lined the margin of the island, and there were depressions visible at agreeable intervals to indicate where a cool gloom might be found by those who sought relief from a hot sun. Over which the sap-green water rolled itself with a constant murmur and moan, the island seemed buried under one deep stratum of verdure. The noble bosom of the strait bore several dows speeding in and out of the Bay of Zanzibar with belling sails. Towards the south, above the sea-line of the horizon, there appeared the naked mass of several large ships, and to the east of these a dense mass of white, flap-topped houses. This was Zanzibar, the capital of the island, which soon resolved itself into a pretty large and compact city with all the characteristics of Arab architecture. Above some of the largest houses lining the bayfront of the city streamed the blood-red banner of the Sultan, Said Berghash, and the flags of the American, English, North German Confederation, and French consulates. In the harbor were thirteen large ships, four Zanzibar men of war, one English man of war, the Nymph, two American, one French, one Portuguese, two English, and two German merchantmen. Besides numerous dows hailing from Johanna and Mayotte of the Camorra Islands, dows from Muscat and Kutch traders between India, the Persian Gulf, and Zanzibar. It was with the spirit of true hospitality and courtesy that Captain Francis R. Webb, United States consul, formerly of the United States Navy, received me. Had this gentleman not rendered me such needful service, I must have condescended to take board and lodging at a house known as Charlie's, called after the proprietor, a Frenchman, who has won considerable local notoriety for harboring penniless atinerance, and manifesting a kindly spirit always, though hidden under such a rugged front, or I should have been obliged to pitch my double-clothed American drill-tent on the sand-beach of this tropical island, which was by no means a desirable thing. But Captain Webb's opportune proposal to make his commodious and comfortable house my own, to enjoy myself with the request that I would call for whatever I might require, obviated all unpleasant alternatives. One day's life at Zanzibar made me thoroughly conscious of my ignorance respecting African people and things in general. I imagined I had read Burton and speak through, fairly well, and that consequently I had penetrated the meaning, the full importance and grandeur of the work I was about to be engaged upon. But my estimates, for instance, based upon book information, were simply ridiculous. Fancyful images of African attractions were soon dissipated, anticipated pleasures vanished, and all crude ideas began to resolve themselves into shape. I strolled through the city. My general impressions are of crooked, narrow lanes, white-washed houses, mortar-plastered streets in the clean quarter, of seeing alcoves on each side, with deep recesses, with a foreground of red-turban banyans, and a background of flimsy cottons, prints, calicoes, domestics, and whatnot, or of floors crowded with ivory tusks, or of dark corners with a pile of un-ginned and loose cotton, or of stores of crockery, nails, cheap rummagenware, tools, etc., in what I call the banyan quarter, of streets smelling very strong, in fact exceedingly melodorous, with steaming yellow and black bodieds and woolly heads sitting at the doors of miserable huts, chatting, laughing, bargaining, scolding, with a compound smell of hides, tar, filth, and vegetable refuse. In the negro quarter, of streets lined with tall, solid-looking houses, flat-roofed, of great carved doors with large brass knockers, with Bob sitting cross-legged, watching the dark entrance to their master's houses, of a shallow sea inlet, with some dows, canoes, canoes, boats, and odd-steamed tub or two leaning over on their sides in a sea of mud, which the tide has just left behind it, of a place called Mazzani Moya, one cocoa tree, where the Europeans wend on evenings with most languid steps, to inhale the sweet air that glides over the sea, while the day is dying and the red sun is sinking westward, of a few graves of dead sailors, who paid the forfeit of their lives upon their arrival in this land, of a tall house wherein lives Dr. Tozor, missionary bishop of Central Africa, and his school of little Africans, and of many other things, which got together into such a tangle that I had to go to sleep, lest I should never be able to separate the moving images, the Arab from the African, the African from the Banyan, the Banyan from the Hindi, the Hindi from the European, etc. Zanzibar is the Baghdad, the Isiphon, the Stambul, if you like, of East Africa. It is the Great Mart, which invites the ivory traders from the African interior. To this market come the gum-cople, the hides, the orquilloid, the timber, and the black slaves from Africa. Baghdad had great silk bazaars. Zanzibar has her ivory bazaars. Baghdad once traded in jewels. Zanzibar trades in gum-cople. Stambul imported Circassian and Georgian slaves. Zanzibar imports black beauties from Ihayao, Yigindi, Ugogo, Unyamwezi, and Gala. The same mode of commerce obtains here as in all Mohammedan countries. Nay, the mode was in vogue long before Moses was born. The Arab never changes. He brought the custom of his forefathers with him when he came to live on this island. He is as much of an Arab here as it must Scott or Baghdad. Wherever he goes to live, he carries with him his harem, his religion, his long robe, his shirt, his slippers, and his dagger. If he penetrates Africa, not all the ridicule of the Negroes can make him change his modes of life. Yet the land has not become oriental. The Arab has not been able to change the atmosphere. The land is semi-African in aspect. The city is but semi-Arabian. To a newcomer into Africa, the musket Arabs of Zanzibar are studies. There is a certain impressment about them which we must admire. They are mostly all travelers. There are but a few of them who have not been in many dangerous positions as they penetrated Central Africa in search of the precious ivory, and their various experiences have given their features a certain unmistakable air of self-reliance or of self- sufficiency. There is a calm, resolute, defiant, independent air about them which wins unconsciously one's respect. The stories that some of these men could tell, I have often thought, would fill many a book of thrilling adventures. For the half-case I have great contempt. They are neither black nor white, neither good nor bad, neither to be admired nor hated. They are all things at all times. They are always fawning on the great Arabs, and always cruel to those unfortunates brought under their yoke. If I saw a miserable, half-starved Negro, I was always sure to be told he belonged to a half-case. Cringing and hypocritical, cowardly and debased, treacherous and mean, I have always found him. He seems to be forever ready to fall down and worship a rich Arab, but is relentless to a poor black slave. When he swears most you may be sure he lies most, and yet this is the breed which is multiplied most at Zanzibar. The Banyan is a born traitor, the beau-ideal of a sharp, money-making man. Money flows to his pockets as naturally as water down a steep. No pang of conscious will prevent him from cheating his fellow man. He excels a Jew, and his only rival in a market is a Farsi. An Arab is a babe to him. It is worth money to see him labor with all his energy, soul and body, to get advantage by the smallest fraction of a coin over a native. Possibly the native has a tusk, and it may weigh a couple of Frasillas, but though the scales indicate the weight, and the native declares solemnly that it must be more than two Frasillas, yet our Banyan will acervate and vow that the native knows nothing whatever about it, and that the scales are wrong. He musters up a courage to lift it. It is a mere song, not much more than a Frasila. Come, he will say, close man, take the money and go thy way. Art thou mad? If the native hesitates he will scream in a fury, he pushes him about, spurns the ivory with contemptuous indifference, never with such an adieu about nothing, but though he tells the astounded native to be up and going, he never intends the ivory shall leave his shop. The Banyan's exercise of all other classes most influence on the trade of Central Africa. With the exception of a very few rich Arabs, almost all other traders are subject to the pains and penalties which usury imposes. A trader desirous to make a journey into the interior, whether for slaves or ivory, gum-cople or orquila-weed, proposes to a Banyan to advance him five thousand dollars at a fifty, sixty or seventy percent interest. The Banyan is safe enough not to lose, whether the speculation the trader is engaged upon pays or not, and experience trader seldom loses, or if he has been unfortunate through no deed of his own, he does not lose credit. With the help of the Banyan he is easily set on his feet again. We will suppose for the sake of illustrating how trade with the interior is managed, that the Arab conveys by his caravan five thousand dollars worth of goods into the interior. At Unyanwebe the goods are worth ten thousand dollars. At Ujiji they are worth fifteen thousand dollars. They have trebled in price. Five Doty, or seven dollars and fifty cents, will purchase a slave in the markets of Ujiji that will fetch in Zanzibar thirty dollars. Ordinary men's slaves may be purchased for six dollars, which would sell for twenty-five on the coast. We will say he purchases slaves to the full extent of his means, after deducting fifteen hundred dollars expenses of carriage to Ujiji and back. Viz three thousand five hundred dollars. The slaves four hundred and sixty-four in number, at seven dollars and fifty per head, would realize thirteen thousand nine hundred and twenty at Zanzibar. Again let us illustrate trade in ivory. A merchant takes five thousand dollars to Ujiji, and after deducting fifteen hundred dollars for expenses to Ujiji and back to Zanzibar, has still remaining thirty five hundred in cloth and beads, with which he purchases ivory. At Ujiji ivory is bought at twenty dollars the Frasila, or thirty five pounds, by which he is enabled with thirty five hundred dollars to collect one hundred and seventy five Frasila's, which if good ivory is worth about sixty dollars per Frasila at Zanzibar. The merchant thus finds that he has realized ten thousand five hundred dollars net profit. Arab traders have often done better than this, but they almost always have come back with an enormous margin of profit. The next people to the banyans in power in Zanzibar are the Mohammedan Hindi's. Really it has been a debatable subject in my mind whether the Hindi's are not as wickedly determined to cheat and trade as the banyans. But if I have conceded the palm to the latter it has been done very reluctantly. This tribe of Indians can produce scores of unconscionable rascals where they can show but one honest merchant. One of the honestists among men, white or black, red or yellow, is a Mohammedan Hindi called Toriyatopan. Amongst the Europeans at Zanzibar he has become a proverb for honesty and strict business integrity. He is enormously wealthy, owns several ships and dows, and is a prominent man in the councils of Saeed Berghash. Tarya has many children, two or three of whom are grown up sons, whom he has reared up even as he is himself. But Tarya is but a representative of an exceedingly small minority. The Arabs, the banyans and the Mohammedan Hindi's represent the higher and the middle classes. These classes own the estates, the ships, and the trade. To these classes bow the half-cased and the negro. The next most important people who go to make up the mixed population of this island are the negroes. They consist of the Aborigines, Wasawahili, Somalis, Cormorans, Wanyam Wensei, and a host of tribal representatives of Inner Africa. To a white stranger about penetrating Africa it is a most interesting walk through the negro quarters of the Wanyam Wensei and the Wasawahili. For here he begins to learn the necessity of admitting that negroes are men, like himself, though of a different color, that they have passions and prejudices, likes and dislikes, sympathies and antipathies, tastes and feelings, in common with all human nature. The sooner he perceives this fact and adapts himself accordingly, the easier will be his journey among the several races of the interior. The more plastic his nature, the more prosperous will be his travels. Though I had lived some time among the negroes of our southern states, my education was northern, and I had met in the United States black men whom I was proud to call friends. I was thus prepared to admit any black man possessing the attributes of a true manhood or any good qualities to my friendship, even to a brotherhood with myself, and to respect him for such as if he were of my own color and race. Neither his color nor any peculiarities of physiognomy should debar him with me from any rights he should fairly claim as a man. Have these men, these black savages from pagan Africa, I asked myself, the qualities which make man lovable among his fellows? Can these men, these barbarians, appreciate kindness or feel real resentment like myself? Was my mental question, as I traveled through their quarters and observed their actions, need I say that I was much comforted in observing that they were as ready to be influenced by passions, by loves and hates as I was myself, that the keenest observation failed to detect any great difference between their nature and my own? The negroes of the island probably number two-thirds of the entire population. They compose the working class, whether enslaved or free. Those enslaved perform the work required on the plantations, the estates and gardens of the land of proprietors, or perform the work of carriers, whether in the country or in the city. Outside the city they may be seen carrying huge loads on their heads, as happy as possible, not because they are kindly treated or that their work is light, but because it is their nature to be gay and lighthearted, because they have conceived neither joys nor hopes which may not be gratified at will, nor cherished any ambition beyond their reach, and therefore have not been baffled in their hopes nor known disappointment. Within the city negro carriers may be heard at all hours, in couples, engaged in the transportation of clove bags, boxes of merchandise, etc., from store to go down, and from go down to the beach, singing a kind of monotone chant for the encouragement of each other, and for the guiding of their pace as they shuffle through the streets with bare feet. You may recognize these men readily, before long, as old acquaintances, by the consistency with which they sing the tunes they have adopted. Several times during a day I have heard the same couple pass beneath the windows of the consulate, delivering themselves of the same invariable tune and words. Some might possibly deem the songs foolish and silly, but they had a certain attraction for me, and I considered that they were as useful as anything else for the purposes that they were intended. The town of Zanzibar, situate on the southwestern shore of the island, contains a population of nearly 100,000 inhabitants. That of the island altogether I would estimate it not more than 200,000 inhabitants, including all races. The greatest number of foreign vessels trading with this port are American, principally from New York and Salem. After the American come the German, then come the French and English. They arrive loaded with American sheeting, brandy, gunpowder, musket speeds, English cotton, brass wire, chinaware, and other notions, and depart with ivory, gum-couple, cloves, hides, calories, sesame, pepper, and coconut oil. The value of the exports from this port is estimated at three million dollars, and the imports from all countries at three million five hundred thousand dollars. The Europeans and Americans residing in the town of Zanzibar are either government officials, independent merchants, or agents for a few great mercantile houses in Europe and America. The climate of Zanzibar is not the most agreeable in the world. I have heard Americans and Europeans condemn it most heartily. I have also seen nearly one half of the white colony laid up in one day from sickness. A noxious malaria is exhaled from the shallow inlet of Malagash, and the undrained filth, the garbage, awful, dead mollusks, dead pariah dogs, dead cats, all species of carrion, remains of men and beasts unburied, assist to make Zanzibar a most unhealthy city, and considering that it ought to be most healthy, nature having pointed out to man the means and having assisted him so far, it is most wonderful that the ruling prince does not obey the dictates of reason. The Bay of Zanzibar is in the form of a crescent, and on the southwestern horn of it is built the city. On the east Zanzibar is bounded almost entirely by the Malagash lagoon, an inlet of the sea. It penetrates to at least two hundred and fifty yards of the sea behind or south of Shangani Point. Were these two hundred and fifty yards cut through by a ten-foot ditch, and the inlet deepened slightly, Zanzibar would become an island of itself, and what wonders would it not affect to health and celebrity? I have never heard the suggestion made, but it struck me that the foreign consuls resident at Zanzibar might suggest this work to the sultan, and so get the credit of having made it as healthy a place to live in as any near the equator. But apropos of this, I remember what Captain Webb, the American consul, told me on my first arrival. When I expressed to him my wonder at the apathy and inertness of men born with the indomitable energy which characterizes Europeans and Americans, of men imbued with the progressive and stirring instincts of the white people, who yet allow themselves to dwindle into pallid phantoms of their kind, into hypochondriacal invalids, into hopeless believers in the deadliness of the climate, with hardly a trace of that daring and invincible spirit which rules the world. Oh! said Captain Webb, it is all very well for you to talk about energy and all that kind of thing, but I assure you that a residence of four or five years on this island, among such people as are here, would make you feel that it was a hopeless task to resist the influence of the example by which the most energetic spirits are subdued, and to which they must submit a time sooner or later. We were all terribly energetic when we first came here and struggled bravely to make things go on as we were accustomed to have them at home. But we have found that we were knocking our heads against granite walls to no purpose whatever. These fellows, the Arabs, the Banyans, and the Hindi's, you can't make them go faster by ever so much scolding and praying, and in a very short time you see the folly of fighting against the unconquerable. Be patient and don't fret. That is my advice, or you won't live long here. There were three or four intensely busy men, though at Zanzibar, who were out at all hours of the day. I know one, an American, I fancy I hear the quick pit-pad of his feet on the pavement beneath the consulate, his cheery voice ringing the salutation Yambo to everyone he met, and he had lived at Zanzibar twelve years. I know another, one of the sturdiest of scotchmen, a most pleasant-mannered and unaffected man, sincere in whatever he did or said, who has lived at Zanzibar several years, subject to the infructuosities of the business he has been engaged in, as well as to the caller and ennui of the climate, who yet presents as formidable affront as ever to the apathetic native of Zanzibar. No man can charge Captain H. C. Frazier formally of the Indian Navy with being apathetic. I might with ease give evidence of the industry of others, but they are all my friends and they are all good. The American, English, German, and French residents have ever treated me with a courtesy and kindness I am not disposed to forget. Taken as a body it would be hard to find a more generous or hospitable colony of white men in any part of the world. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Of How I Found Living Stone This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org How I Found Living Stone by Sir Henry M. Stanley Chapter 3 Organization of the Expedition I was totally ignorant of the interior and it was difficult at first to know what I needed in order to take an expedition into Central Africa. Time was precious also and much of it could not be devoted to inquiry and investigation. In a case like this, it would have been a godsend, I thought, at either of the three gentlemen Captain's Burton, Speak, or Grant. Given some information on these points, had they devoted a chapter upon how to get ready for an expedition for Central Africa? The purpose of this chapter then is to relate how I said about it that other travelers coming after me may have the benefit of my experience. These are some of the questions I asked myself as I tossed on my bed at night. How much money is required? How many pegazis or carriers? How many soldiers? How much cloth? How many beads? How much wire? What kinds of cloth are required for the different tribes? Ever so many questions to myself brought me no clearer the exact point I wish to arrive at. I scribbled over scores of sheets of paper, made estimates, drew out lists of material, calculated the cost of keeping one hundred men for one year, at so many yards of different kinds of cloth, etc. I studied Burton, Speak, and Grant in vain. A good deal of geographical, ethnological, and other information appertaining to the study of Inner Africa was obtainable, but information respecting the organization of an expedition requisite before proceeding to Africa was not in any book. The Europeans at Zanzibar knew as little as possible about this particular point. There was not one white man at Zanzibar who could tell how many dotes a day a force of one hundred men required to buy food for one day on the road. Neither, indeed, was at their business to know. But what should I do at all? This was a grand question. I decided it were best to hunt up an Arab merchant who had been engaged in the ivory trade or who was fresh from the interior. Sheikh Hasid was a man of no enough wealth in Zanzibar. He himself dispatched several caravans into the interior and was necessarily acquainted with several prominent traders who came to his house to gossip about their adventures and gains. He was also the proprietor of the large house Captain Webb occupied, besides he lived across the narrow street which separated his house from the consulate. Of all men Sheikh Hasid was the man to be consulted and he was accordingly invited to visit me at the consulate. From the gray bearded and venerable looking sheik I elicited more information about African currency, the mode of procedure, the quantity and quality of stuffs I required, then I had obtained from three months study of books upon Central Africa and from other Arab merchants to whom the ancient sheik introduced me, I received most valuable suggestions and hints which enabled me at last to organize an expedition. The reader must bear in mind that a traveler requires only that which is sufficient for travel and exploration, that a surfer fluidity of goods or means will prove as fatal to him as poverty of supplies. It is on this question of quality and quantity that the traveler has first exercised his judgment and discretion. My informants gave me to understand that for one hundred men, ten dhoti or forty yards of cloth per diem would suffice for food. The proper course to pursue I found was to purchase two thousand dhoti of American cheating, one thousand dhoti of keniki, and six hundred fifty dhoti of the colored cloth such as brusati a great favorite in the yunamweezy, sahari taken in yugogo, ishmahili, tajiri, joho, shas, rahani, jamdini, or kanguru kutch, blue and pink. These were deemed amply sufficient for the subsistence of one hundred men for twelve months. Two years at this rate would require four thousand dhoti equal to sixteen thousand yards of American cheating, two thousand dhoti equal to eight thousand yards of keniki, one thousand three hundred dhoti equal to five thousand two hundred yards of mixed colored cloths. This was definite and valuable information to me, and accepting the lack of some suggestions as to the quality of the sheeting, keniki in colored cloths, I had obtained all I desired upon this point. Second in importance to the amount of cloth required was the quantity and quality of the beads necessary. Beads, I was told, took the place of cloth currency among some tribes of the interior. One tribe preferred white to black beads, brown to yellow, red to green, green to white, and so on. Thus, in unhumweezy, red, samisami beads would readily be taken, where all other kinds would be refused. Black bubu beads, though currency in yugogo, were positively worthless with all other tribes. The egg, sangomasi beads, though valuable in yujiji in yugaha, would be refused in all other countries. The white, marikani beads, though good in yufipa, and some parts of yusagara and yugogo, would certainly be despised in yusaguha and yuganango. Such being the case, I was obliged to study closely and calculate the probable state of an expedition in the several countries, so as to be sure to provide a sufficiency of each kind and guard against any great over-plus. Burton and Spiek, for instance, were obliged to throw away as worthless several hundred fundo of beads. For example, supposing the several nations of Europe had each its own currency without the means of exchange, and supposing a man was about to travel through Europe on foot. Before starting, he would be apt to calculate how many days it would take him to travel through France, how many through Prussia, Austria, and Russia, then to reckon the expense he would be likely to incur per day. If the expense be set down at a Napoleon per day, and his journey through France would occupy 30 days, the sum required for going and returning might be properly set down at 60 Napoleons, in which case Napoleon's not being current money in Prussia, Austria, or Russia, it would be utterly useless for him to burden himself with the weight of a couple thousand Napoleons in gold. My anxiety on this point was most excruciating. Over and over I studied the hard names and measures, conned again and again the polysyllables, hoping to be able to arrive sometime at an intelligible definition of the terms. I revolved in my mind the words Mugunguro, Gulabio, Sungomazi, Kadanduguru, Matunda, Samisami, Bubu, Merikani, Hafta, Lunghiorega, and Lakhio until I was fairly beside myself. Finally, however, I came to the conclusion that if I reckoned my requirements at fifty Kahit or five Fundo per day for two years, and if I purchased only eleven varieties I might consider myself safe enough. The purchase was accordingly made and twenty-two sacks of the best species were packed and brought to Captain Webb's house, ready for transportation to Bagamoyo. After the beads came the wire question. I discovered after considerable trouble that numbers five and six almost the thickness of telegraph wire were considered the best numbers for trading purposes. While beads stand for copper coins in Africa, cloth measures for silver, wire is reckoned as gold in the countries beyond the Tanganyika. Ten fresh law or 350 pounds of brass wire my Arab advisor thought would be ample. Having purchased the cloth, the beads, and the wire, it was with no little pride that I surveyed the comely bales and packages lying piled up row above row in Captain Webb's capacious storeroom. Yet my work was not ended. It was but beginning. There were provisions, cooking utensils, boats, rope, twine, tents, dunkeys, saddles, bagging, canvas, tar, needles, tools, ammunition, guns, equipments, hatchets, medicines, bedding, presents for chiefs, in short a thousand things not yet purchased. The ordeal of chaffering and haggling with steel-hearted banyans, hindies, Arabs, and half-casts was most trying. For instance, I purchased 22 dunkeys at Sanzibar. Forty and fifty dollars were asked, which I had to reduce to fifteen or twenty dollars by an infinite amount of argument worthy, I think, of a nobler cause. As was my experience with the ass-dealers, so it was with the petty merchants. Even a paper of pins was not purchased without a five percent reduction from the price demanded, involving, of course, a loss of time in patience. After collecting the dunkeys, I discovered there were no pack-saddles to be obtained in Sanzibar. Dunkeys without pack-saddles were of no use whatever. I invented a saddle to be manufactured by myself and my white man Farkahar, wholly from canvas, rope, and cotton. Three or four freshillas of cotton and ten bolts of canvas were required for the saddles. A specimen saddle was made by myself in order to test its efficiency. A dunkey was taken and saddled in a load of one hundred forty pounds was fastened to it, and though the animal, a wild creature of Anyamweezy struggled and reared frantically, not a particle gave way. After this experiment Farkahar was set to work to manufacture twenty-one more after the same pattern. Woolen pads were also purchased to protect the animals from being galled. It ought to be mentioned here perhaps that the idea of such a saddle as I manufactured was first derived from the Otego saddle in use among the transport trains of the English army in Epsinia. A man named John William Shaw, a native of London, England, lately third mate of the American ship Nevada applied to me for work. Though his discharge from the Nevada was rather suspicious, yet he possessed all the requirements of such a man as I needed, and was an experienced hand with the palm and needle, could cut canvas to fit anything, was a pretty good navigator ready and willing so far as his professions went. I saw no reason to refuse his services and he was accordingly engaged at three hundred dollars per annum to rank second to William L. Farkahar. Farkahar was a capital navigator and excellent mathematician was strong, energetic, and clever. The next thing I was engaged upon was to enlist arm and equip a faithful escort of twenty men for the road. Jahari, the chief dragoman of the American consulate, informed me that he knew where certain of speaks faithfuls were yet to be found. The idea had struck me before that if I could obtain the services of a few men acquainted with the ways of white men, and who could induce other good men to join the expedition I was organizing, I might consider myself fortunate. More especially had I thought of seedy, mabaric mumbe, commonly called Bombay, who though his head was woodeny and his hands clumsy, was considered to be the faithfulist of the faithfuls. With the aid of the dragoman Jahari, I secured in a few hours the services of Yuliti, Captain Grant's former valet, Yulimengo, Baruti, Ambari, Mabruki, Munyi Mabruki, Bullheaded Mabruki, Captain Burton's former unhappy valet, five of speaks faithfuls. When I asked them if they were willing to join another white man's expeditions to Ugg, they replied very readily that they were willing to join any brother of speaks. Dr. John Kirk, Her Majesty's Council at Zanzibar, who was present, told him that though I was no brother of speaks, I spoke his language. This distinction mattered little to them, and I heard them with great delight to clear their readiness to go anywhere with me or to do anything I wished. Mambay, as they called him, or Bombay, as we know him, had gone to Pemba, an island lying north of Zanzibar. Yulidi was sure Mambay would jump with joy at the prospect of another expedition. Chahari was therefore commissioned to write to him at Pemba to inform him of the good fortune in store for him. On the fourth morning after the letter had been dispatched, the famous Bombay made his appearance, followed in decent order and due rank by the faithfuls of speak. I looked in vain for the woodeny head and alligator teeth with which his former master had endowed him. I saw a slender short man of fifty or thereabouts. With a grizzled head, an uncommonly high narrow forehead, with a very large mouth showing teeth very irregular and wide apart. An ugly rant in the upper front row of Bombay's teeth was made with the clenched fist of Captain Speak in Uganda when his master's patience was worn out and prompt punishment became necessary. That Captain Speak had spoiled him with kindness was evident from the fact that Bombay had the audacity to stand up for a boxing match with him. But these things I only found out when, months afterwards, I was called upon to administer punishment to him myself. But at his first appearance I was favourably impressed with Bombay, though his face was rugged, his mouth large, his eyes small, and his nose flat. Salam alikikam were the words he greeted me with. Alikikam salam I replied with all the gravity I could muster. I then informed him I required him as Captain of my soldiers to Yujiji. His reply was that he was ready to do whatever I told him, go wherever I like, in short, be a pattern to servants and a model to soldiers. He hoped I would give him a uniform and a good gun, both of which were promised. Upon inquiring for the rest of the faithfuls who accompanied speak into Egypt, I was told that at Zanzibar there were but six. Ferraji, Maktab, Sadiq, Sanguru, Manyu, Matajari, Makata, and Almas were dead. Yulidi and Matamani were in Anyunyembi, Asan had gone to Kilwa and Ferrahan was supposed to be in Yujiji. Out of the six faithfuls, each of whom still retained his medal for assisting in the discovery of the sources of the Nile. One, poor Mabruki, had met with a sad misfortune, which I feared would incapacitate him from active usefulness. Mabruki, the bullheaded on Dashamba, or a house with a garden attached to it, of which he was very proud. Close to him lived a neighbor in similar circumstances who was a soldier of Said Majid, with whom Mabruki, who was of a quarrelsome disposition, had a feud, which culminated in the soldier inducing two or three of his comrades to assist him in punishing the malevolent Mabruki, and this was done in a manner that only the heart of an African could conceive. They tied the unfortunate fellow by his wrist to a branch of a tree, and after indulging their brutal appetite for revenge in torturing him, left him to hang in that position for two days. At the expiration of the second day, he was accidentally discovered in a most pitiable condition. His hands had swollen to an immense size, and the veins of one hand had been ruptured. He had lost its use. It is needless to say that when the affair came to Said Majid's ears the miscreants were severely punished. Dr. Kirk, who attended the poor fellow, succeeded in restoring one hand to something of a semblance of its former shape, but the other hand is sadly marred and its former usefulness gone forever. However, I engaged Mabruki despite his deformed hands, his ugliness and vanity, because he was one of Speaks faithfuls. For if he but wagged his tongue in my service, kept his eyes open and opened his mouth at the proper time, I assured myself I could make him useful. Bombay, my captain of escort, succeeded in getting eighteen more free men to volunteer as Oscari soldiers. Men whom he knew would not desert and for whom he declared himself responsible. They were an exceedingly fine-looking body of men, far more intelligent in appearance than I could ever have believed African barbarians could be. They hailed principally from Yuhuyo, others from Yuenemwisi, some came from Yusaguha and Yugindo. Their wages were set down at thirty-six dollars each man per annum or three dollars each per month. Each soldier was provided with a flintlock musket, powder horn, bullet pouch, knife, and hatchet, besides enough powder and ball for two hundred rounds. Bombay, in consideration of his rank and previous faithful services to Burton, Speak and Grant was engaged at eighty dollars a year, half that sum in advance, a good muzzle-loading rifle besides a pistol, knife, and hatchet were given to him, while the other five faithfuls, Ambarri, Mabruki, Ulamengo, Baruti, and Yulita were engaged at forty dollars a year with proper equipment as soldiers. Having studied fairly well all the East African travelers' books regarding Eastern and Central Africa, my mind had conceived the difficulties which would present themselves during the prosecution of my search after Dr. Livingstone. To obviate all of these, as well as human wick suggests, was my constant thought and aim. Shall I permit myself while looking from Ujiji over the waters of the Tanganyika lake to the other side to be balked on the threshold of success by the insolence of a king Kanina, or the Caprice of Ahamed bin Sulaiam, was a question I asked myself. To guard against such a contingency I determined to carry my own boats. Then I thought if I hear of Livingstone being on the Tanganyika I can launch my boat and proceed after him. I procured one large boat capable of carrying twenty persons with stores and goods sufficient for a cruise from the American consul for the sum of eighty dollars and a smaller one from another American gentleman for forty dollars. The latter would hold comfortably six men with suitable stores. I did not intend to carry the boats whole or bodily but to strip them of their boards and carry the timbers and thwarts only. As a substitute for the boards I proposed to cover each boat with a double canvas skin well tarred. The work of stripping them and taking them to pieces fell to me. This little job occupied me five days. I also packed them up for the Pagazis. Each load was carefully weighed and none exceeded sixty-eight pounds in weight. John Shaw excelled himself in the workmanship displayed on the canvas boats. When finished they fitted their frames admirably. The canvas six bolts of English hemp number three was procured from Lutha Damji who furnished it from the sultan's storeroom. An insuperable obstacle to rapid transit in Africa is the one of carriers and as speed was the main object of the expedition under my command my duty was to lessen this difficulty as much as possible. My carriers could only be engaged after arriving at Bagamoyo on the mainland. I had over 20 good donkeys ready and I thought a cart adapted for the footpaths of Africa might prove an advantage. Accordingly I had a cart constructed eighteen inches wide and five feet long supplied with two four wheels of a light American wagon more for the purpose of conveying the narrow ammunition boxes. I estimated that if a donkey could carry to Yunanyembe a load of four frezelaws or 140 pounds he ought to be able to draw eight frezelaws on such a cart which would be equal to the carrying capacity of four stout pagassis or carriers. Events will prove how my theories were born out in practice. When my purchases were completed and I beheld them piled up tier after tier row upon row here a mass of cooking utensils there bundles of rope tents saddles a pile of portmanteaus and boxes containing every imaginable thing I confess I was rather abashed at my own temerity. Here were at least six tons of material how will it ever be possible I thought to move all this inert mass across the wilderness stretching between the sea and the great lakes of Africa. Cast all doubts away man and have at them sufficient for the day is the evil thereof without borrowing from the morrow. The traveler must needs make his way into the African interior after a fashion very different from that to which he has been accustomed in other countries. He requires to take with him just what a ship must have when about to sail on a long voyage. He must have his slop chest his little store of canned dainties and his medicines besides which he must have enough guns powder and ball to be able to make a series of good fights if necessary. He must have men to convey these miscellaneous articles and as a man's maximum load does not exceed 70 pounds to convey 11,000 pounds requires nearly 160 men. Europe and the Orient even Arabia and Turkestan have royal ways of traveling compared to Africa. Species is received in all those countries by which a traveler may carry his means about him on his own person. Eastern and Central Africa however demand a necklace instead of a scent two yards of American sheeting instead of half a dollar or a florin and a contendi of thick brass wire in place of a gold piece. The African traveler can hire neither wagons nor camels neither horses nor mules to proceed with him into the interior. His means of conveyance are limited to black and naked men who demand at least $15 ahead for every 70 pounds weight carried only as far as Yuan Yenbi. One thing amongst others my predecessors omitted to inform men bound for Africa which is of importance and that is that no traveler should ever think of coming to Zanzibar with his money in any other shape than gold coin. Letters of credit circular notes and such civilized things I have found to be a century ahead of Zanzibar people. 20 and 25 cents deducted out of every dollar I drew on paper is one of the unpleasant if not unpleasantest things I have committed to lasting memory. For Zanzibar is a spot far removed from all avenues of European commerce and coin is at a high premium. A man may talk and entreat but though he may have drafts checks circular notes letters of credit a carte blanche to get what he wants out of every dollar must be deducted 25 and 30 cents so I was told and so was my experience. What a pity there is no branch bank here. I had intended to have gone into Africa incognito but the fact that a white man even an American was about to enter Africa was soon known all over Zanzibar. This fact was repeated a thousand times in the streets proclaimed in all the shop alcoves and at the custom house the native bizarre laid hold of it and agitated it day and night until my departure. The foreigners including the Europeans wish to know the pros and cons of my coming in and going out. My answer to all questions pertinent and impertinent was I am going to Africa. Though my card bore the words Henry M. Stanley, New York Herald very few I believe ever coupled the words New York Herald with a search after Dr. Livingstone. It was not my fault was it? Ah me! What hard work it is to start an expedition alone. What with hurrying through the baking heat of the fierce relentless sun from shop to shop strengthening myself with far-reaching and enduring patience for the haggling contest with the livid-faced Hindi summoning courage and wit to browbeat the villainous Goanese and match the foxy banyan talking volumes throughout the day correcting estimates making up accounts superintending the delivery of purchased articles measuring and weighing them to see that everything was a full measure and weight overseeing the white men Fakahar and Shaw who were busy on donkey saddles sails tents and boats for the expedition I felt when the day was over as the limbs and brain well deserved their rest such labors were mine unremittingly for a month. Having bartered drafts on Mr. James Gordon Bennett to the amount of several thousand dollars for cloth, beads, wire, donkeys and a thousand necessaries having advanced pay to the white men and black escort of the expedition having fretted Captain Webb and his family more than enough with the dinner preparation and filled his house with my goods there was nothing further to do but to leave my formal adduce with the Europeans and thank the Sultan and those gentlemen who had assisted me before embarking for Bagamoyo The day before my departure from Sanzibar the American consul having just habited himself in his black coat and taking with him an extra black hat in order to be in state apparel proceeded with me to the Sultan's palace The prince had been generous to me he had presented me with an Arab horse had furnished me with letters of introduction to his agents his chief men and representatives in the interior and in many other ways had shown himself well disposed towards me The palace is a large, roomy, lofty square house close to the fort built of coral and plastered thickly with lime mortar In appearance it is half Arabic and half Italian The shutters are Venetian blinds painted a vivid green and presenting a striking contrast to the whitewashed walls Before the great lofty wide door were ranged in two crescents several Balook and Persian mercenaries armed with curved swords and charges of rhinoceros hide Their dress consisted of a muddy white cotton shirt reaching to the ankles girdled with a leather belt thickly studded with silver bosses As we came in sight a signal was passed to some person inside the entrance When within twenty yards of the door the Sultan who was standing waiting came down the steps and passing through the ranks advanced toward us with his right hand stretched out and a genial smile of welcome on his face On our side we raised our hats and shook hands with him after which, doing according as he bade us we passed forward and arrived on the highest step near the entrance door He pointed forward we bowed and arrived at the foot of an unpainted and narrow staircase to turn once more to the Sultan The console I perceived was ascending sideways a mode of progression which I saw was intended for a compromise with decency and dignity At the top of the stairs we waited with our faces towards the upcoming prints Again we were waved magnanimously forward or before us was the reception hall and throne room I noticed as I marched forward to the furthest end that the room was high and painted in the Arabic style that the carpet was thick and of Persian fabric that the furniture consisted of a dozen gilt chairs and a chandelier We were seated Lutha Damshi, the Banyan collector of customs a venerable looking old man with a shrewd intelligence face sat on the right of the Sultan Next to him was the great Mohammedan merchant Taria Tapan who had come to be present at the interview not only because he was one of the counselors of his highness but because he also took a lively interest in this American expedition Opposite to Lutha sat Captain Webb and next to him I was seated opposite Taria Tapan The Sultan sat in a gilt chair between the Americans and the counselors Jihari the Drago man stood humbly before the Sultan expectant and ready to interpret what we had to communicate to the Prince The Sultan, so far as dress goes might be taken for a mangrellian gentleman accepting indeed for the Turban whose ample folds in alternate colors of red, yellow, brown, and white and circled his head His long robe was of dark cloth synched round the waist with his rich sword belt from which was suspended a gold-hilted scimitar encased in a scabbard also enriched with gold His legs and feet were bare and had a ponderous look about them since he suffered from that strange curse of Zanzibar, Elephantiasis His feet were slipped into a pair of wadda, Arabic for slippers with thick soles and a strong leather band over the instep His light complexion and his correct features, which are intelligent and regular bespeak the Arab patrician They indicate however nothing except his high descent and blood no traits of character are visible unless there is just a trace of amiability and perfect contentment with himself and all around Such is Prince or Sayyad Birgash Sultan of Zanzibar and Pemba and the east coast of Africa from Somali land to the Mozambique as he appeared to me Coffee was served in cups supported by golden finjas also some coconut milk and rich sweet sherbert The conversation began with the question addressed to the council Are you well? Council, yes, thank you, how is His Highness? Highness, quite well Highness, to me, are you well? Answer, quite well, thanks The council now introduces business and questions about my travels follow from His Highness How do you like Persia? Have you seen Karbala Baghdad, Messer, Stambul? Have the Turks many soldiers? How many has Persia? Is Persia fertile? How do you like Zanzibar? Having answered each question to His Highness's satisfaction he handed me letters of introduction to his officers at Bagamoyo and Kayoli and a general introductory letter to all Arab merchants whom I might meet on the road and concluded his remarks to me with the expressed hope that on whatever mission I was bound I should be perfectly successful We bowed ourselves out of His presence in much the same manner that we had bowed ourselves in He accompanying us to the great entrance door Mr. Gudhue of Salem, an American merchant long resident in Zanzibar presented me as I gave him my adieu with a blooded bay horse imported from the Cape of Good Hope and worth at least at Zanzibar $500 February 4th By the 4th of February, 28 days from the date of my arrival at Zanzibar the organization and equipment of the New York Herald expedition was complete Tents and saddles had been manufactured boats and sails were ready the donkeys braided and the horses nade impatiently for the road Etiquette demanded that I should once more present my card to the European and American consuls at Zanzibar and the word farewell was said to everybody On the 5th day four dowels were anchored before the American consulate Into one were lifted the two horses Into two others the donkeys Into the fourth the largest the black escort and bulky monies of the expedition A little before noon we set sail The American flag, a present to the expedition by that kind-hearted lady Mrs. Webb was raised to the masthead The consul, his lady and exuberant little children Mary and Charlie were on the housetop waving the starry banner hats and handkerchiefs a token of farewell to me and mine Happy people and good May their course and ours be prosperous and may God's blessing rest on us all End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Part 1 of How I Found Livingston This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Read by Tim McKenzie How I Found Livingston Travels, adventures and discoveries in Central Africa including four months' residence with Dr. Livingston by Sir Henry M. Stanley Chapter 4 Part 1 Life at Bagamoyo The Isle of Zanzibar with its groves of coconut, mango, clove and cinnamon and its sentinel islets of Chumbian French with its whitewashed city and jackfruit odour with its harbour and ships that tread the deep faded slowly from view and looking westward the African continent rose a similar bank of green verger to that which had just receded till it was a mere sinuous line above the horizon looming in an orderly direction to the sublimity of a mountain chain The distance across from Zanzibar to Bagamoyo may be about 25 miles yet it took the dull and lazy dows 10 hours before they dropped anchor on the top of the coral reef plainly visible a few feet below the surface of the water within 100 yards of the beach The newly enlisted soldiers, fond of noise and excitement discharged repeated salvos by way of a salute to the mixed crowd of Arabs, Banyans and Wasawahili who stood on the beach to receive the Musungu white man which they did with a general stare and a chorus of Yambol Bana How are you master? In our own land the meeting with the large crowd is rather a tedious operation as our independent citizens insist on an interlacing of fingers and a vigorous shaking thereof before their pride is satisfied and the peaceful manifestation endorsed But on this beach well lined with spectators a response of Yambol Bana sufficed except with one who of all there was acknowledged the greatest and who claiming like all great men individual attention came forward to exchange another Yambol on his own behalf and to shake hands This personage with a long trailing turban was Jemadar Iso, commander of the Zanzibar force of soldiers, police or Baluch Jondam stationed at Bagamoyo He had accompanied speak and grant a good distance into the interior and they had rewarded him liberally He took upon himself the responsibility of assisting in the debarcation of the expedition and unworthy as was his appearance, disgraceful as he was in his filth I here commend him for his influence over the rabble to all future East African travellers Foremost among those who welcomed us was a father of the Society of Sant Esprit who with other Jesuits under Father Superior Horner have established a missionary post of considerable influence and merit at Bagamoyo We were invited to partake of the hospitality of the mission to take our meals there and should we desire it to pitch our camp on their grounds But however strong the geniality of the welcome and sincere the heartiness of the invitation I am one of those who prefer independence to dependence if it is possible Besides, my sense of the obligation between host and guest had just had a fine edge put upon it by the delicate forbearance of my kind host Zanzibar who had betrayed no sign of impatience at the trouble I was only too conscious of having caused him I therefore informed the hospitable Padre that only for one night could I suffer myself to be enticed from my camp I selected a house near the western outskirts of the town where there is a large open square through which the road from Unyayembe enters Had I been at Bagamoyo a month I could not have betted my location My tents were pitched fronting the tembe house I had chosen enclosing a small square where business could be transacted bails looked over examined and marked free from the intrusion of curious citesias After driving the 27 animals of the expedition into the enclosure in the rear of the house storing the bails of goods and placing a cordon of soldiers round I proceeded to the Jesuit mission to a late dinner being tired and ravenous leaving the newly formed camp in charge of the white men and captain Bombay The mission is distant from the town a good half mile to the north of it It is quite a village of itself numbering some 15 or 16 houses There are more than 10 Padres engaged in the establishment and as many sisters and all find plenty of occupation in inducing from native crania the fire of intelligence Truth compels me to state that they are very successful having over 200 pupils boys and girls in the mission and from the youngest to the oldest they show the impress of the useful education they have received The dinner furnished to the Padres and their guests consisted of as many plates as a first class hotel in Paris usually supplies and cooked with nearly as much skill though the surroundings were by no means equal I feel assured also that the Padres besides being tasteful in their potages and entrees do not stontify their ideas for lack of that element which Horace, Hafiz and Byron have praised so much The Champagne think of Champagne-Clicot in East Africa La Fite, La Rosée, Burgundy and Bordeaux were of first-rate quality and the meek and lowly eyes of the fathers were not a little brightened under the Vinus influence Ah those fathers understand life and appreciate its duration Their festive board drives the African jungle fever from their doors while it soothes the gloom and isolation which strike one with awe as one emerges from the lighted room and plunges into the depths of the darkness of an African night enlivened only by the wearing monotone of the frogs and crickets and the distant eululation of the hyena it requires somewhat above human effort unaided by the ruby liquid that cheers to be always suave and polite amid the dismalities of native life in Africa after the evening meal which replenished my failing strength and for which I felt the intensest gratitude the most advanced of the pupils came forward to the number of 20 with brass instruments thus forming a full band of music it rather astonished me to hear instrumental sounds issue forth in harmony from such woolly-headed youngsters to hear well-known French music at this isolated port to hear Negro boys that a few months ago knew nothing beyond the traditions of their ignorant mothers stand forth and chant Parisian songs about French valor and glory with all the son foyer of gammon from the Perrier of Saint-Antoine I had a most refreshing night's rest and at dawn I sought out my camp with the will to enjoy the new life now commencing on counting the animals two donkeys were missing and on taking notes of my African monies one coil of number six wire was not to be found everybody had evidently fallen on the ground to sleep oblivious of the fact that on the coast there are many dishonest prowlers at night soldiers were dispatched to search through the town and neighborhood and Gemidari saw was apprised of our loss and stimulated to discover the animals by the promise of a reward before night one of the missing donkeys was found outside the town nibbling at many ock leaves but the other animal and the coil of wire were never found among my visitors this first day at Bagamoyo was Ali Bin Salim a brother of the famous Said Bin Salim formally raskafila to Burton and speak and subsequently to speak and grant his salams were very profuse and moreover his brother was to be my agent in Ognia Mwazi so that I did not hesitate to accept his offer of assistance but alas for my white face and too trustful nature this Ali Bin Salim turned out to be a snake in the grass and a very sore thorn in my side I was invited to his comfortable house to partake of coffee I went there the coffee was good though sugarless his promises were many but they proved valueless he said to me I am your friend I wish to serve you what can I do for you replied I I'm obliged to you I need a good friend who knowing the language and customs of the Ognia Mwazi can procure me the Pagazis I need and send me off quickly your brother is acquainted with the Wasungu white men and knows that what they promise they make good get me 140 Pagazis and I will pay you your price with unctuous courtesy the reptile I was now warmly nourishing said I do not want anything from you my friend for such a slight service rest content and quiet you shall not stop here 15 days tomorrow morning I will come and overhaul your bales to see what is needed I bade him good morning elated with the happy thought that I was soon to tread the Ognia Yembe Road the reader must be made acquainted with two good and sufficient reasons why I was to devote all my energy to lead the expedition as quickly as possible from Bagamoyo first I wish to reach Ujiji before the news reached Livingston that I was in search of him for my impression of him was that he was a man who would try to put as much distance as possible between us rather than make an effort to shorten it and I should have my long journey for nothing second the Masika or rainy season would soon be on me which if it caught me at Bagamoyo would prevent my departure until it was over which meant a delay of 40 days and exaggerated as the rains were by all men with whom I came in contact it rained every day for 40 days without intermission this I knew was a thing to dread for I had my memory stored with all kinds of rainy unpleasantnesses for instance there was the rain of Virginia and its concomitant horrors wetness mildew adews rheumatics and such like then there were the English rains a miserable drizzle causing the blue devils then the rainy season of Abyssinia with the floodgates of the firmament opened and an universal downpour of rain enough to submerge half a continent in a few hours lastly there was the pelting monsoon of India a steady shut and house kind of rain to which of these rains should I compare this dreadful Masika of East Africa did not Burton write much about black mud in Uzaramo well a country whose surface soil is called black mud in fine weather what can it be called when 40 days rain beat on it and feet of Pagasi's and donkeys made paste of it these were natural reflections induced by the circumstances of the hour and I found myself much exercised in mind in consequence Ali bin Salim true to his promise visited my camp on the morrow with a very important air and after looking at the pile of cloth bales informed me that I must have them covered with mat bags he said he would send a man to have them measured but he enjoined me not to make any bargain for the bags as he would make it all right while awaiting with commendable patience the 140 Pagasi's promised by Ali bin Salim we were all employed upon everything that thought could suggest needful for crossing the sickly maritime region so that we might make the transit before the terrible fever could unnerve us and make us joyless a short experience at Bhagamaya showed us what we lacked what was superfluous and what was necessary we were visited one night by a school accompanied by furious rain I had $1,500 worth of Pagasi cloth in my tent in the morning I looked and low the drilling had let in rain like a sieve and every yard of cloth was wet it occupied two days afterwards to dry the cloths and fold them again the drill tent was condemned and a number five hemp canvas tent at onto prepared after which I felt convinced that my cloth bales and one year's ammunition were safe and that I could defy the masika in the hurry of departure from Zanzibar and in my ignorance of how bales should be made I had submitted to the better judgment and ripe experience of one Jetta a commission merchant to prepare my bales for carriage Jetta did not weigh the bales as he made them up but piled the Merukani, Kaniki, Barsati, Jamtani, Joho, Ismahili in alternate layers and wrote the same into bales one or two Pagasi's came to my camp and began to chaffer they wished to see the bales first before they would make a final bargain they tried to raise them up ugh ugh it was of no use and withdrew a fine Salter's spring balance was hung up and a bale suspended to the hook the finger indicated 105 pounds or three fracila which was just 35 pounds or one fracila overweight upon putting all the bales to this test I perceived that Jetta's guesswork with all his experience had caused considerable trouble to me the soldiers were set to work to reopen and repack which later task is performed in the following manner we cut a Daughty or four yards of Merukani ordinarily sold at Zanzibar for two dollars and seventy five cents the piece of 30 yards and spread out we take a piece or bolt of good Merukani and instead of the double fold given it by the Nashua and Salem mills we folded into three parts by which the folds have a breadth of a foot this piece forms the first layer and will weigh nine pounds the second layer consists of six pieces of kaniki a blue stuff similar to the blouse stuff of France and the blue jeans of America they're much lighter the third layer is formed of the second piece of Merukani the fourth of six more pieces of Kaniki the fifth of Merukani the sixth of Kaniki as before and the seventh and last of Merukani we have thus four pieces of Merukani which weigh 36 pounds and 18 pieces of Kaniki weighing also 36 pounds making a total of 72 pounds or a little more than two fracilas the cloth is then folded singly over these layers each corner tied to another a bundle of koi rope is then brought and two men provided with a wooden mallet for beating and pressing the bale proceed to tie it up with as much nicety as sailors serve down rigging when complete a bale is a solid mass three feet and a half long a foot deep and a foot wide of these bales i had to convey 82 to Inuyembe 40 of which consisted solely of the Merukani and Kaniki the other 42 contained the Merukani and coloured cloths which later were to serve as Honga or tribute cloths and to engage another set of pagazis from Inuyembe to Ujiji and from Ujiji to the regions beyond the 15th day asked of me by Ali bin Salim for the procuring of the pagazis passed by and there was not the ghost of a pagasi in my camp i sent Mabruki the bullhead to Ali bin Salim to convey my salams and express a hope that he had kept his word in half an hour's time Mabruki returned with the reply of the Arab that in a few days he would be able to collect them all but added Mabruki slyly bana i don't believe him he said aloud to himself in my hearing why should i get the musungu pagazis said burgas did not send a letter to me but to the gemadar why should i trouble myself about him let's say burgas write me a letter to that purpose and i will procure them within two days to my mind this was a time for action Ali bin Salim should see that it was ill trifling with a white man in earnest to start i wrote down to his house to ask him what he meant his reply was Mabruki had told a lie as black as his face he had never said anything approaching to such a thing he was willing to become my slave to become a pagazi himself but here i stopped the voluble Ali and informed him that i could not think of employing him in the capacity of a pagazi neither could i find it in my heart to trouble said burgas to write a direct letter to him or to require of a man who had deceived me once as Ali bin Salim had any service of any nature whatsoever it would be better therefore if Ali bin Salim would stay away from my camp and not enter it either in person or by proxy i had lost 15 days for gemadar sadur at kaole and had never stirred from his fortified house in that village in my service saved to pay a visit after the receipt of the sultan's letter naranji custom house agent at kaoya solely under the thumb of the great ludha damji had not responded to ludha's worded request that he would procure pagazis except with winks nods and promises and it is but just stated how i fared at the hands of Ali bin Salim in this extremity i remembered the promise made to me by the great merchant of zanzibar taria topan a mohammedan hindi that he would furnish me with a letter to a young man named sur haji palu who was said to be the best man in bagamoyo to procure a supply of pagazis i dispatched my arab interpreter by a dow to zanzibar with a very earnest request to captain web that he would procure from taria topan the introductory letter so long delayed it was the last card in my hand on the third day the arab returned bringing with him not only the letter to sur haji palu but an abundance of good things from the ever-hospitable house of mr webb in a very short time after the receipt of his letter the eminent young man sur haji palu came to visit me and informed me that he had been requested by taria topan to hire for me 140 pagazis to unyayembe in the shortest time possible this he said would be very expensive for there were scores of arabs and wasawabili merchants on the lookout for every caravan that came in from the interior and they paid 20 dotty or 80 yards of cloth to each pagazi not willing or able to pay more many of these merchants had been waiting as long as six months before they could get their quota if you continued he desired to depart quickly you must pay from 25 to 40 dotty and i can send you off before one month has ended in reply i said here are my cloths for pagazis to the amount of $1,750 or $3,500 sufficient to give 140 men 25 dotty each the most i am willing to pay is 25 dotty send 140 pagazis to unyayembe with my cloth and wire and i will make your heart glad with the richest present you have ever received with the refreshing naivete the young man said he did not want any present but he would get me my quota of pagazis and then i could tell the wasungu what a good young man he was and consequently the benefit he would receive would be an increase of business he closed his reply with the astounding remark that he had 10 pagazis at his house already and if i would be good enough to have four bales of cloth two bags of beads and 20 coils of wire carried to his house the pagazis could leave bagamoyo the next day under charge of three soldiers four he remarked it is much better and cheaper to send many small caravans than one large one large caravans invite attack or are delayed by avaricious chiefs upon the most trivial pretexts while small ones pass by without notice the bales and the beads were duly carried to sur haji palu's house and the day passed with me and mentally congratulating myself upon my good fortune in complimenting the young hindi's talents for business the greatness and influence of taria topan and the goodness of mr webb and thus hastening my departure from bagamoyo i mentally vowed a handsome present and a great puff in my book to sur haji palu and it was with a glad heart that i prepared these soldiers for their march to unia yembe the task of preparing the first caravan for the unia yembe road informed me upon several things that have escaped the notice of my predecessors in east africa a timely knowledge of which would have been of infinite service to me at zanzibar in the purchase and selection of sufficient and proper cloth end of chapter four part one chapter four part two of how i found livingston this is a liberal box recording all liberal box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberal box dot org read by bethan how i found livingston travels adventures and discoveries in central africa including four months residence with dr livingston by sir henry m stanley chapter four part two life at bagamoyo the setting out of the first caravan enlightened me also on the subject of honga or tribute tribute had to be packed by itself all of choice cloth for the chiefs besides being ever issues are also very fastidious they will not accept the flimsy cloth of the pagasi but a royal and exceedingly high price deboni is mahali rahini or sahari or doties of crimson broadcloth the tribute for the first caravan cost twenty five dollars having more than 140 pegazis to dispatch this tribute money would finally amount to three hundred and thirty dollars gold with a minimum of twenty five cents on each dollar ponder on this so traveler i lay bare these facts for your special instruction but before my first caravan was destined to park company with me sor haji palo were the young man and i were to come to a definite understanding about money matters the morning appointed for departure sor haji palo came to my hut and presented his bill with all the gravity of innocence for supplying the vagazes with twenty five dodie each as their hire to unia nyambe begging immediate payment in money words fail to express the astonishment i naturally felt that this sharp-looking young man should so soon have forgotten the verbal contract entered into between him and myself the morning previous which was to the effect that out of the three thousand dodie stored in my tent and bought expressive for pegazi hire each and every man hired for me as carriers from bagamoyo to unia nyambe should be paid out of the store there in my tent when i asked if he remembered the contract he replied in the affirmative his reasons for breaking it so soon were that he wished to sell his cloths not mine and for his cloths he should want money not an exchange but i gave him to comprehend that as he was procuring pegazes for me he was to pay my pegazes with my cloths that all the money i expected to pay him should be just such a sum i thought adequate for his trouble as my agent and that only on these terms should he act for me in this or any other matter and that the musunga was not accustomed to eat his words the preceding paragraph embodies many more words that are contained in it it embodies a dialogue of an hour an angry altercation of half an hour's duration a vow taken on the part of sur haji palo that if i did not take his claws he should not touch my business many tears in treaties woeful penance and much else all of which were responded to with do as i want you to do or do nothing finally came relief and a happy ending sur haji palo went away with a bright face taking with him three soldiers posha food and hanga tribute for the caravan well for me that it had ended so and that subsequent quarrels of a similar nature terminated so peaceably otherwise i doubt whether my departure from bagamoyo would have happened so early as it did while i am on this theme as it early and grossed every moment of my time at bagamoyo i may as well be more explicit regarding boar haji palo and his connection with my business sur haji palo was a smart young man of business energetic quick of mental calculation and seemed to be born for successful salesman his eyes were never idle they wandered over every part of my person over the tent the bed the guns the clothes and having swung clear around begin the silent circle over again his fingers were never at rest they had a fidgety nervous action at their tips constantly in the act of feeling something while in the act of talking to me he would lean over and feel the texture of the cloth of my trousers my coat or my shoes or socks then he would feel his own light jam and donny shirt or dubwaying loincloth until his eyes casually resting upon a novelty his body would lean forward and his arm was stretched out with the willing fingers his jaws also were in perpetual motion caused by vile habits he had acquired of chewing beetle nut and lime and sometimes tobacco and lime they gave out the sound similar to that of a young chote in the act of sucking he was a pious mohammedan and observed the external courtesies and ceremonies of the true believers he would affably greet me take off his shoes entering my tent protesting he was not fit to sit in my presence and after being seated would begin his ever crooked errand and he would be sitting in my presence and after being seated would begin his ever crooked errand of honesty literal and practical honesty this youth knew nothing to the pure truth he was an utter stranger the falsehoods he had uttered during his short lives seemed already to have quenched the bold gaze of innocence from his eyes to have banished the color of truthfulness from his features to have transformed him yet a stripling of 20 into a most accomplished rascal and consummate expert in dishonesty during the six weeks I had camped at bagamoyo waiting for my quota of men this latter 20 gave me very much trouble he was found out half a dozen times a day in dishonesty yet was in no way abashed by it he would send in his account of the cloths supplied to the ragazis stating them to be 25 paid to each on sending a man to inquire I would find the greatest number to have been 20 in the smallest 12 so haji palo described the cloths to be a first class quality a yellow cloths worth in the market four times more than the ordinary quality given to the bagazis yet a personal examination would prove them to be the flimsiest goods sold such as American cheating two and a half feet broad and worth two dollars and 75 cents per 30 yards a piece at zanzibar or the most inferior kanaki which is generally sold at nine dollars per score he would personally come to my camp and demand 40 pounds of sami sami marunka and buba beads for posho or caravan rations an inspection of their store before departure from their first camp from bagamoyo would show a deficiency ranging from five to 30 pounds moreover he cheated in cash money such as demanding four dollars for crossing the kangani ferry for every 10 bagazis when the fare was two dollars for the same number and an unconscionable number of pies copper coins equal in value to three quarters of a cent were acquired for posho it was every day for four weeks that this system of roguery was carried out each day conceived a dozen new schemes every instant of his time seemed to be devising how to plunder and terrible i was fairly at my wits and how to thwart him exposure before a crowd of his fellows brought no blush of shame to his shallow cheeks he would listen with a mere shrug of the shoulders and that was all which i might interpret anyway it pleased me a threat to reduce his present had no effect a bird in the hand was certainly worth two in the bush for him the ten dollars worth of goods stolen and in his actual possession was of more intrinsic value than the promise of 20 in a few days though it was that of a white man readers will of course ask themselves why did not after the first discovery of these shameless proceedings close my business with him to which i make reply that i could not do without him unless his equal worth forthcoming that i never felt so thoroughly dependent on anyone man as i did upon him without his or his duplicates aid i must have stayed at bagamoyo at least six months at the end of which time the expedition would have become valueless the rumor of it having been blown abroad to the four winds it was immediate departure that was essential to my success departure from bagamoyo after which it might be possible for me to control my own future in a great measure these troubles were the greatest that i could at this time imagine i have already stated that i had one thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars worth of pegasi's cloths or three thousand five hundred dodie stored in my tent and above what my bails contained calculated 140 pegasi's of 25 dodie each i supposed i had enough yet though i had been trying to teach the young hindu that the musunga was not a fool nor blind to his pilfering tricks though the three thousand five hundred dodie were all spent though i had only obtained 130 pegasi's at 25 dodie each which in the aggregate amounted to three thousand two hundred dodie sir haji palo's bill was one thousand four hundred cash extra his plea was that he had furnished a yellow cloths for mohongo 240 dodie each in value to 960 of my dodie that the money was spent in ferry pice in presence through chiefs of caravans of tents guns red broad cloth in presence to the people on the marimba coast to induce them to hunt up pegasi's upon this exhibition the most ruthless cheating i waxed indignant and declared to him that if he would not run over his bill then correct it he should go without a price but before the bill could be put into proper shape my words threats and promises falling heedlessly on a stony brain a man kanji by name from the store of toyara topan of zanzibar had to come over when the bill is finally reduced to 738 without any disrespect to toyara topan i'm unable to decide which is the most accomplished rascal kanji or young sore haji palo in the words of a white man who knows them both there is not the splitting of the stroll between them kanji is deep and sly sore haji palo is bold and incorrigible but peace be to them both may their shaven heads never be covered with the troubulous crown i wore at bagamoyo my dear friendly reader do not think if i speak out my mind in this or any other chapter upon matters seemingly trivial and unimportant that seeming such they should be left unmentioned every tittle related is a fact and to no fax is to receive knowledge how could i ever recite my experience to you if i did not enter upon these miserable details which sorely distract the stranger upon his first arrival had i been a government official i had but whacked my finger and my quota of fugazis had been furnished to me within a week but as an individual arriving without the graces of official recognition armed with no government influence i had to be patient by my time and chew the cut of irritation quietly but the bread i ate was not all sour as this was the white men foquajar and sha were kept steadily at work upon waterproof tents of hemp canvas for i perceived by the peremontory showers of rain that markedly approached the masika that an ordinary tent of light cloth would subject myself to damp my goods to mildew and while there was time to rectify all errors that had crept into my plans through ignorance or overhaste i thought it was not wise to permit things to rectify themselves now that i have returned uninjured in health though i have suffered the attacks of 23 fevers within the short space of 13 months i must confess i owe my life first to the mercy of god secondly to the enthusiasm for my work which animated me from the beginning to the end thirdly to have never ruined my constitution by indulgence in vice and in temperance fourthly to the energy of my nature fifthly to a native hopefulness which never died and sixthly to having furnished myself with a cuspatious water and damp proof canvas house and here if my experience may be of value i would suggest that travelers instead of submitting their better judgment to the capricious of a tent maker who will endeavor to pass off a handsomely made fabric of his own which is unsuited to all climbs to use his own judgment and get the best and strongest that money will buy in the end it will prove the cheapest and perhaps be the means of saving his life on one point i failed and less new and young travelers fall into the same error which marred much of my enjoyment this paragraph is written one must be extremely careful in his choice of weapons whether for sport or defense a traveler should have at least three different kinds of guns one should be a fouling piece the second should be a double barrel rifle number 10 or 12 the third should be a magazine rifle for defense for the fouling piece i would suggest number 12 or with barrels at least four feet in length for the rifle for larger game i would point out with new deference to old sportsmen of course that the best guns for african game are the english land coaster and rally rifles and for a fighting weapon i maintain that the best yet invented is american winchester repeating rifle or the 16 shooter as it is called supply with a london alays ammunition if i suggest as a fighting weapon the american winchester i do not mean that the traveler need take it for the purpose of offense but as the best means of efficient defense to save his own life against african bandit when attacked a thing likely to happen anytime i met a young man soon after returning from the interior who declared his conviction that the express rival was the most perfect weapon ever invented to destroy african game very possibly the young man may be right and that the express rifle is all he declares it to be but he had never practiced with it against african game and as i had never tried it i could not combat his assertion but i could relate my experience with weapons having all the penetrating powers of the express and could inform him that though the bullets penetrated through the animals they almost always failed to bring down the game at the first fire on the other hand i could inform him that during the time i traveled with dr limiston the doctor lent me his heavy riley rifle with which i seldom failed to bring an animal or two home to the camp and that i found the frazier shell answer all purposes for which it was intended the feats related by captain speak and sir samuel baker are no longer matters of wonderment to the young sportsman when he has a Lancaster or a riley in his hand after a very few trials he can imitate them if not excel their leads provided he has a setty hand and it is to forward this end that this paragraph is written african game require bone crushers for any ordinary carving possesses sufficient penetrating qualities yet has not the disabling qualities which a gun must possess to be useful in the hands of an african explorer i had not been long at vagamoyo before i went over to mazawadi's camp to visit the living stint caravan which the british consul dispatched on the first day of november 1870 to the relief of living stint the number of packages was 35 which required as many men to convey them to the men chosen to escort this caravan were composed of johannes and why hyal seven in number out of the seven four were slaves they lived in clover here thoughtless of the air and they had been sent upon and careless of the consequences what these men were doing at bagamoyo all this time i never could conceive except indulging their own vicious propensities it would be nonsense to say that there were no pagazes because i know there were at least 15 caravan which has started for the interior since the ramadan december 15th 1870 he had living since caravan had arrived at this little town of bagamoyo november 2nd and here it had been lying until 10th of february in all 100 days for lack of the limited number of 35 pagazes a number that might be procured within two days through consular influence bagamoyo has a most enjoyable climate it is far preferable in every sense to that of zanzibar we were able to sleep in the open air and rose fresh and healthy each morning to enjoy our matutinal bath in the sea and by the time the sun had risen we were engaged in various preparations for a departure for the interior our days were enlivened by visits from the arabs who were also banned for unyam yembe by comical scenes in the camp sometimes by court marshals held on the refractory by a boxing match between fukwarhar and shah necessitating my prudent interference when they waxed to wroth by a hunting excursion now and then to the kirangani plain and river by social conversation with the old jemander and his band of baluches who were never tired of warning me that the mahsika was at hand and of advising me that my best course was to hurry on before the season of traveling expired among the employees with the expedition were two hindu and two gonis they had conceived the idea that the african interior was an el dorado a ground of which was strewn over with ivory tusks and they had clubbed together while their imaginations were thus heated to embark in a little enterprise of their own their names were jaco abdual kader bundar salam and aran sealer jaco engaged in my service as carpenter in general help abdual kedar as a tailor and bundar salam as cook and aran sealer as chief butler but aran sealer with an intuitive eye or saw that i was likely to prove a vigorous employer and while there was yet time he devoted most of it to conceive how it was possible to withdraw from the engagement he received permission upon asking for it to go to zanzibar to visit his friends two days afterwards i was informed he had blown his right eye out and received a medical confirmation of the fact and note of the extent of the injury from dr christy the physician to his highness he had burghash his compatriots i imagined were about planning the same thing but a preemptory command to abstain from such folly issued after they had received their advance bay suffice to check any sinister designs they may have formed a groom was caught stealing from the bales one night and the chase after him into the country until he vanished out of sight into the jungle was one of the most agreeable diversions which occurred to wear away the interval employed in preparing for the march i had now dispatched four caravans into the interior and the fifth which was to carry the boats in the boxes personal luggage and a few cloths and bead loads was ready to be led by myself the following is the order of departure of the caravans 1871 february 6th expedition arrived at bagamoya 1871 february 18th first caravan departs with 24 pagazes and three soldiers 1871 february 21st second caravan departs with 28 pagazes two chiefs and two soldiers 1871 february 25th third caravan departs with 22 pagazes 10 donkeys one white man one cook and three soldiers 1871 march 11th fourth caravan departs with 55 pagazes two chiefs and three soldiers 1871 march 21st fifth caravan departs with 28 pagazes 12 soldiers two white men one tailor one cook one interpreter one gunbearer 17 asses two horses and one dog total number inclusive of all souls comprised in caravans connected with the new york herald expedition 192 end of chapter four part two