original promise to give me assistance on to Usiii, said lie
could do so now with a very good grace.
Quite approving himself of this suggestion, Lumer&si
then gave me one of his officers to be my guide—his name
was Sangizo. This man no sooner received his orders
than, proud of his office as the guide of such a distinguished
caravan, he set to work to find us porters.
Meanwhile my Wasiii friends, who left on the 25th of
August, returned, bearing what might be called Siiwaro-
ra’s mace—a long rod of brass bound up in stick charms,
and. called Kaquenzingiriri, “the commander of all things.”
This they said was their chief’s invitation to u s ; Stiwarora
did not want a hongo—he only wished to see us, and sent
this Kaquenzingiriri, to command us respect wherever we
went.
5th.—Without seeing us again, Ltimeresi, evidently
ashamed of the power held over him by this rod of Siiwa-
rora’s, walked off in the night, leaving word that he was
on his way to Ruhe’s, to get back my gun and all the
other things that had been taken from Grant. The same
night a large herd of cattle was stolen from the boma
without any one knowing i t ; so next morning, when the
loss was discovered, all the Wahuma set off' on the spoor
to track them down; but with what effect I never knew.
As I had now men enough to remove half our property,
m. 1 made a starfc having Grant to bring
up the rest. I believe I was a most miserable
spectre in appearance, puffing and blowing at each step I
took, with shoulder drooping, and left arm hanging like
a dead log, which I was unable ever to swing. Grant,
remarking this, told me then, although from a friendly
delicacy he had abstained from saying so earlier, that
my condition, when he first saw me on rejoining, gave
him a sickening shock. Next day (7th) he came up with
the rest of the property, carried by men who had taken
service for that one march only.
Before us now lay a wilderness of five marches’ duration,
as the few villages that once lined it
had all been depopulated by the Sorombo
people and the Watiita. We therefore had to lay in
rations for those days, and as no men could be found who
would take service to Karagiie, we filled up our complement
with men at exorbitant wages to carry our things
on to Usiii. At this place, to our intense joy, three of
Sheikh Said’s boys came to us with a letter from Rigby;
but, on opening it, our spirits at once fell far below zero,
for it only informed us that he had sent us all kinds of
nice things, and letters from home, which were packed up
in boxes, and despatched from the coast on the 30th October
1860.
The boys then told me that a merchant, nicknamed
Msopora, had left the boxes in Ugogo, in charge of some
of those Arabs who were detained there, whilst he went
rapidly round by the south, following up the Riiaha river
to Usanga and Usenga, whence he struck across to Kaze.
Sheikh Said, they said, sent his particular respects to me;
he had heard of Grant’s disasters with great alarm. If he
could be of service, he would readily come to me; but he
had dreamed three times that he saw me marching into
Cairo, which, as three times were lucky, he was sure
would prove good, and he begged I would still keep my
nose well to the front, and push boldly on. Manila Sera
was still in the field, and all was uncertain. Bombay
then told me—he had forgotten to do so before—that
when he was last at Kaze, Sheikh Said told him he was
sure we would succeed if both he and myself pulled together,
although it was well known no one else of my
party wished to go northwards.
With at last a sufficiency of porters, we all set out to-
To Kagongo, 9th. §etlier, walking over a new style of country.
Instead of the constantly-recurring outcrops
of granite, as in Unyamuezi, with valleys between, there