Sportsman in India, asked me to take him with me, and
his appointment was settled by Colonel Sykes, then chairman
of a committee of the Royal Geographical Society,
who said it would only be a “ matter of charity” to allow
me a companion.
Much at the same time, Mr Petherick, an ivory merchant,
who had spent many years on the Nile, arrived in!
England, and gratuitously offered, as it would not inter-!
fere with his trade, to place boats at Gondokoro, and send
a party of men up the White River to collect ivory in the
meanwhile, and eventually to assist me in coming down. I
Mr Petherick, I may add, showed great zeal for geographical
exploits; so, as I could not get money enough to
do all that I wished to accomplish myself, I drew out a
project for him to ascend the stream now known as the
Usua river (reported to be the larger branch of the Nile),
and, if possible, ascertain what connection it had with
my lake. This being agreed to, I did my best, through
the medium of Earl de Grey (then President of the Royalj
Geographical Society), to advance him money to carry out
this desirable object.
The last difficulty I had now before me was to obtain!
a passage to Zanzibar. The Indian Government had
promised me a vessel of war to convey me from Aden
to Zanzibar, provided it did not interfere with the public
interests. This doubtful proviso induced me to apply to
Captain Playfair, Assistant-Political at Aden, to know!
what Government vessel would be available; and should
there be none, to get for me a passage by some American
trader. The China war, he assured me, had taken up all
the Government vessels, and there appeared no hope left
for me that season, as the last American trader was just I
then leaving for Zanzibar. In this dilemma it appeared
that I must inevitably lose the travelling season, and
come in for the droughts and famines. The tide, however,
turned in my favour a little; for I obtained, by per-
Inission of the Admiralty, a passage in the British screw
steam-frigate Forte, under orders to convey Admiral Sir
H. Keppel to his command at the Cape; and Sir Charles
Wood most obligingly made a request that I should be
forwarded thence to Zanzibar in one of our slaver-hunting
cruisers by the earliest opportunity.
1; On the 27th April, Captain Grant and I embarked on
board the new steam-frigate Forte, commanded by Captain
E. W. Turnour, at Portsmouth; and after a long
voyage, touching at Madeira and Rio de Janeiro, we
Jarrived at the Cape of Good Hope on the 4th July. Here
Sir George Grey, the Governor of the colony, who took a*
warm and’ enlightened interest in the cause of the expedition,
invited both Grant and myself to reside at his house.
Sir George had been an old explorer himself—was once
■wounded by savages in Australia, much in the same manner
as I had been in the Somali country—and, with a
spirit of sympathy, he called me his son, and said he.
hoped I would succeed. Then, thinking how best he
could serve me, he induced the Cape Parliament to advance
to the expedition a sum of £300, for the purpose of
buying baggage-mules; and induced Lieut.-General Wyn-
yard, the Commander-in-Chief, to detach ten volunteers
from the Cape Mounted Rifle Corps to accompany me.
When this addition was made to my force, of twelve mules
and ten Hottentots, the Admiral of the station placed the
|crew steam-corvette Brisk at my disposal, and we all
sailed for Zanzibar on the 16th July, under the command
of Captain A. F. de Horsey—the Admiral himself accompanying
us, on one of his annual inspections to visit the
east coast of Africa and the Mauritius. In five days more
we touched at East London, and, thence proceeding north,
Bade, a short stay at Delagoa Bay, where I first became
acquainted with the Zulu Kafirs, a naked set of negroes,
whose national costume principally consists in having their
hair trussed up like a hoop on the top of the head, and an