some fresh provisions and firewood, as what little of
this latter article can he gathered in its saturated state
is useless, for it will not burn. During the afternoon
the remainder of the crew keep dropping in, and at
nightfall seventeen hands are mustered.
5th.—At 3 a .m . the sea subsides, and the boat is
loaded.—To pack so many men together, with material,
in so small a space as the canoe affords, seems a difficulty
almost insurmountable. Still it is effected. I
litter down amidships, with my bedding spread on
reeds, in so short a compass that my legs keep slipping
off and dangling in the bilge-water. The cook
and bailsman sit on the first bar, facing me ; and behind
them, to the stern, one-half the sailors sit in
couples ; whilst on the first bar behind me are Bombay
and one Beluch, and beyond them to the bow, also in
couples, the remaining crew. The captain takes post
in the bows, and all hands on both sides paddle in
stroke together.
Fuel, cooking-apparatus, food, bag and baggage, are
thrown promiscuously under the seats. But the
sailors’ blankets, in the shape of grass matting, are
placed on the bars to render the sitting soft. Once
all properly arranged, the seventeen paddles dash off
with vigour, and, steering southwards, we soon cross
the mouth of the Ruchb. Next Ukaranga, the last
village on this line down the eastern shore, lying
snugly in a bay, with a low range of densely-wooded
bills about three miles in its rear, is passed by dawn
of day, and about sunrise the bay itself is lost to sight.
The tired crew now hug a bluff shore, crowned with
dense jungle, until a nook familiar to the men is entered
under plea of breakfasting. Here all hands
land, fires are kindled, and the cooking-pots arranged.
Some prepare their rods and nets for fishing, some go
in search of fungi (a favourite food), and others collect
fuel. Gaetano, ever doing wrong, dips his cooking-
pot in the sea for water—a dangerous experiment, if
the traditions of Tanganyika hold good, that the
ravenous hosts of crocodiles seldom spare any one
bold enough to excite their appetites with such dregs
as usually drop from those utensils; moreover, they
will follow and even board the boats, after a single
taste.
The sailors here have as great an aversion to being
followed by the crocodile as our seamen by a shark,
and they now display their feelings by looks and mut-
terings, and strictly prohibiting the use of the cooking-
pot on that service again. Breakfast ready, all hands
eagerly fall to, and feast away in happy ignorance of
any danger, when suddenly confusion enters the camp,
and, with the alarming cry that foes are coming, all
hurry-skurry for the boat, some with one thing, some
with another. The greater part of the kit is left upon
the ground. A breathless silence reigns for several
minutes. Then one jumps off and secures his p o t ;
another succeeds him, and then more, till courage is
gained to make a search, and ascertain the cause of
the alarm. Sneaking, crawling in the bush, some
peering this way, others listening that, they stealthi