from being wet through. What little ammunition I had
left I fired off as signals, or made tinder of to get up a
fire, but the wood would not burn. In this hapless condition
the black boys began murmuring, wishing to go
on, pretending, though both held opposite views, that
each knew the way; for they thought nothing could be
worse than their present state of discomfort.
Night with its gloom was then drawing on, heightened
by thunder and lightning, which set in all around us.
At times we thought we heard musketry in camp, knowing
that Grant would be sure to fire signals for u s ; and
doubtless we did so, but its sound and the thunder so
much resembled one another that we distrusted our ears.
At any rate, the boys mistook the west for the east; and
as I thought they had done so, I stood firm to one spot,
and finally lay down with them to sleep upon the cold
wet ground, where we slept pretty well, being only disturbed
occasionally by some animals sniffing at our feet.
As the clouds broke towards morning, my obstinate boys
still swore that west was east, and would hardly follow
me when tracking down Yenus ; next up rose the moon,
and then followed the sun, when, as good luck would
have it, we struck on the track, and walked straight into
camp.
Here every one was in a great state of excitement:
_,, Grant had been making the men fire volleys. Halt; 9th. ° J
The little sheikh was warmly congratulatory
as he spoke of the numbers who had strayed away
and had been lost in that wilderness ; whilst Bombay
admitted he thought we should turn up again if I did
not listen to the advice of the boys, which was his only
fear. Nothing as yet, I now found, had been done to
further our march. The hongo, the sheikh said, had to
precede everything; yet that had not been settled, because
the chief deferred it the day of our arrival, on the plea
that it was the anniversary of Short-legs’s death; and he
also said, that till then all the Wagogo had been in
mourning by ceasing to wear all their brass bracelets and
other ornaments, and they now wished to solemnise the
occasion by feasting and renewing their finery. This
being granted, the next day another pretext for delay
was found, by the Wahumba having made a raid on their
cattle, which necessitated the chief and all his men turning
out to drive them away ; and to-day nothing could
be attended to, as a party of fugitive Wanyamuézi had
arrived and put them all in a fright. These Wanyamìiézi,
it then transpired, were soldiers of Manua Séra, “ the
Tippler,” who was at war with the Arabs. He had been
defeated at Ngtlrii, a district in Unyamilézi, by the
Arabs, and had sent these men to cut off the caravan
route, as the best way of retaliation that lay in his
power.
At last the tax having been settled by the payment of
Change ground, one dubuani, two barsati, one sahari, six yards
10<A' merikani, and three yards kiniki (not, however,
until I had our tents struck, and threatened to march
away if the chief would not take it), I proposed going on
with the journey, for our provisions were stored. But
when the loads were being lifted, I found ten more men
were missing; and as nothing now could be done but
throw ten loads away, which seemed too great a sacrifice
to be made in a hurry, I simply changed ground to show
we were ready to march, and sent my men about, either
to try to induce the fugitive Wanyamuézi to take service
with me, or else to buy donkeys, as the chief said he had-
some to sell.
We had already been here too long. A report was now
spread that a lion had killed Halt, lliA. -, . ,TT one o. f the chief’s
cows ; and. the W agogo, suspecting that our
being here was the cause of this ill luck, threatened to attack
us. This no sooner got noised over the camp than all my
Wanyamìiézi porters, who had friends in Ugogo, left to