He
Received Us In His Usually Affable Manner; Made Many Trite
Remarks Concerning Our Plans; Was Surprised, If My Only
Object in
view was to see the great river running out of the lake, that I
did not go by
The more direct route across the Masai country and
Usoga; and then, finding I wished to see Karague, as well as to
settle many other great points of interest, he offered to assist
me with all the means in his power.
The Hottentots, the mules, and the baggage having been landed,
our preparatory work began in earnest. It consisted in proving
the sextants; rating the watches; examining the compasses and
boiling thermometers; making tents and packsaddles; ordering
supplies of beads, cloth, and brass wire; and collecting servants
and porters.
Sheikh Said bin Salem, our late Cafila Bashi, or caravan captain,
was appointed to that post again, as he wished to prove his
character for honour and honesty; and it now transpired that he
had been ordered not to go with me when I discovered the Victoria
N'yanza. Bombay and his brother Mabruki were bound to me of old,
and the first to greet me on my arrival here; while my old
friends the Beluchs begged me to take them again. The
Hottentots, however, had usurped their place. I was afterwards
sorry for this, though, if I ever travel again, I shall trust to
none but natives, as the climate of Africa is too trying to
foreigners. Colonel Rigby, who had at heart as much as anybody
the success of the expedition, materially assisted me in
accomplishing my object - that men accustomed to discipline and a
knowledge of English honour and honesty should be enlisted, to
give confidence to the rest of the men; and he allowed me to
select from his boat's crew any men I could find who had served
as men-of-war, and had seen active service in India.
For this purpose my factotum, Bombay, prevailed on Baraka, Frij,
and Rahan - all of them old sailors, who, like himself, knew
Hindustani - to go with me. With this nucleus to start with, I
gave orders that they should look out for as many Wanguana (freed
men - i.e., men emancipated from slavery) as they could enlist,
to carry loads, or do any other work required of them, and to
follow men in Africa wherever I wished, until our arrival in
Egypt, when I would send them back to Zanzibar. Each was to
receive one year's pay in advance, and the remainder when their
work was completed.
While this enlistment was going on here, Ladha Damji, the
customs' master, was appointed to collect a hundred pagazis
(Wanyamuezi porters) to carry each a load of cloth, beads, or
brass wire to Kaze, as they do for the ivory merchants.
Meanwhile, at the invitation of the Admiral, and to show him some
sport in hippopotamus-shooting, I went with him in a dhow over to
Kusiki, near which there is a tidal lagoon, which at high tide is
filled with water, but at low water exposes sand islets covered
with mangrove shrub. In these islets we sought for the animals,
knowing they were keen to lie wallowing in the mire, and we
bagged two. On my return to Zanzibar, the Brisk sailed for the
Mauritius, but fortune sent Grant and myself on a different
cruise. Sultan Majid, having heard that a slaver was lying at
Pangani, and being anxious to show his good faith with the
English, begged me to take command of one his vessels of war and
run it down. Accordingly, embarking at noon, as soon as the
vessel could be got ready, we lay-to that night at Tombat, with a
view of surprising the slaver next morning; but next day, on our
arrival at Pangani, we heard that she had merely put in to
provision there three days before, and had let immediately
afterwards. As I had come so far, I thought we might go ashore
and look at the town, which was found greatly improved since I
last saw it, by the addition of several coralline houses and a
dockyard. The natives were building a dhow with Lindi and
Madagascar timber. On going ashore, I might add, we were
stranded on the sands, and, coming off again, nearly swamped by
the increasing surf on the bar of the river; but this was a
trifle; all we thought of was to return to Zanzibar, and hurry on
our preparations there. This, however, was not so easy: the sea
current was running north, and the wind was too light to propel
our vessel against it; so, after trying in vain to make way in
her, Grant and I, leaving her to follow, took to a boat, after
giving the captain, who said we would get drowned, a letter, to
say we left the vessel against his advice.
We had a brave crew of young negroes to pull us; but, pull as
they would, the current was so strong that we feared, if we
persisted, we should be drawn into the broad Indian Ocean; so,
changing our line, we bore into the little coralline island,
Maziwa, where, after riding over some ugly coral surfs, we put in
for the night. There we found, to our relief, some fisherman, who
gave us fish for our dinner, and directions how to proceed.
Next morning, before daylight, we trusted to the boat and our
good luck. After passing, without landmarks to guide us, by an
intricate channel, through foaming surfs, we arrived at Zanzibar
in the night, and found that the vessel had got in before us.
Colonel Rigby now gave me a most interesting paper, with a map
attached to it, about the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon. It
was written by Lieutenant Wilford, from the "Purans" of the
Ancient Hindus. As it exemplifies, to a certain extent, the
supposition I formerly arrived at concerning the Mountains of the
Moon being associated with the country of the Moon, I would fain
draw the attention of the reader of my travels to the volume of
the "Asiatic Researches" in which it was published.[FN#5] It is
remarkable that the Hindus have christened the source of the Nile
Amara, which is the name of a country at the north-east corner of
the Victoria N'yanza.
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