Though He Spoke In This Manner, Still
I Knew That There Was Something Rankling In His Mind Which
Depressed His Spirits As Long As He Remained With Us, Though What
It Was I Could Not Comprehend, Nor Did I Fully Understand It Till
Months Afterwards.
It was ambition, which was fast making a
fiend of him; and had I known it, he would, and with great
advantage too, have been dismissed upon the spot.
The facts were
these: He was exceedingly clever, and he knew it. His command
over men was surprising. At Zanzibar he was the Consul's right-
hand man: he ranked above Bombay in the consular boat's crew, and
became a terror even to the Banyans who kept slaves. He seemed,
in fact, in his own opinion, to have imbibed all the power of the
British Consul who had instructed him. Such a man was an element
of discord in our peaceful caravan. He was far too big-minded
for the sphere which he occupied; and my surprise now is that he
ever took service, knowing what he should, at the time of
enlistment, have expected, that no man would be degraded to make
room for him. But this was evidently what he had expected,
though he dared not say it. He was jealous of Bombay, because he
thought his position over the money department was superior to
his own over the men; and he had seen Bombay, on one occasion,
pay a tax in Uzaramo - a transaction which would give him
consequence with the native chiefs.
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