A straw between them." Kanjee is deep and sly, Soor
Hadji Palloo is bold and incorrigible. But peace be to them both,
may their shaven heads never be covered with the troublous crown
I wore at Bagamoyo!
My dear friendly reader, do not think, if I speak out my mind in
this or in 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 knew facts 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 wagged my finger and my quota of pagazis had been furnished
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, bide my time, and chew the cud of irritation
quietly, but the bread I ate was not all sour, as this was.
The white men, Farquhar and Shaw, were kept steadily at work upon
water-proof tents of hemp canvas, for I perceived, by the
premonitory showers of rain that marked the approach of the Masika
that an ordinary tent of light cloth would subject myself to damp
and my goods to mildew, and while there was time to rectify all
errors that had crept into my plans through ignorance or over
haste, I thought it was not wise to permit things to rectify
themselves.
