the same letter. He writes thus :—“ The accounts
formerly made in Europe about the facility of penetrating
inland from Kilwa (Quiloa), and the economy
of travel in that region, are fabulous. The southern
Sawahili are more hostile to explorers than the inhabitants
of the northern maritime towns, and their
distance from the seat of government renders them
daring by impunity. But last year they persuaded
the Waginda tribe of the interior to murder a peaceful
Arab merchant, in order that strangers might
be deterred from interfering with their commerce.
Messrs Krapf and Erhardt, of the Mombas mission,
spent a few hours at Kilwa, where they were civilly
received by the governor and citizens, but they were
sadly deceived in being led to imagine that they
could make that port their starting-point.” “We
shall probably land at Bagamoyo.”
Now we did land at Kaole, close to Bagamoyo, but
the route from Kilwa to Nyassa was afterwards safely
traversed by Dr Boscher, though, after that, Boscher
was murdered by some thieves in Whiyow.*
Having said this much, which shows that Captain
Burton was bent on going by the great caravan road
to Ujiji, I shall first of all dwell on the nature of the
men we took with us, what agreements they made,
and what pays they received. I feel bound to state
this, as I was called on by the Consul to witness the
agreements, and much of the journey was performed
* The murderers of Dr Boscher were sent to Zanzibar by the chief of
their tribe, and were executed by orders of the Sultan.
by myself alone; added to which, the funds of the
expedition fell short, and as soon as it did so, I made
a compact with Captain Burton that, in the event of
the Government not paying our excess of expenditure,
I would pay him the half of all those expenses; and
I did so to the extent of ¿£600 after the journey was
over.
Our cafila bashi (head of caravan) was Sheikh
Said, who went with us to Mombas. He said he would
go with us if we only went to Ujiji on the Tanganyika
Lake, but he would not go on any other line, as his
relatives feared some accident might befall him. For
this he received from Colonel Hamerton 500 dollars ;
and he was promised, if he succeeded in pleasing us,
1000 dollars more, and a gold watch, on his return.
There was a little more difficulty in getting a Beluch
escort, for the Consul cautioned us that we could not
expect the Sultan to give one gratis. He asked the
Sultan, however, for men, and we were told we might
have them out of his army if they would volunteer.
The head jemadar then came to make a bargain, and
we said we would give to each man five dollars a-month,
besides rations and clothing the same as Bombay got.
This bait would not take, and we could not get one
man until the Consul again spoke to the Sultan about
it. A party then were marched up to the Consulate,
when, in addition to the pay already offered, they demanded
flesh as often as we killed a goat, bullock, or
sheep, but they would not serve more than six months.
To this last stipulation, arguing on my Somali experi