CH A P T ER m.
Organization of the Expedition—The skauri— “ Poli-poli”—
Msenna’s successiul imposture— Black sheep in the flock—
The Lady Alice remodelled— Sewing a British flag—
Tarya Topan, the millionaire— Signing the covenants_
“ On the word of a white man”— Saying good-bye—Loading
the dhows— Vale!-—Towards the Dark Continent.
(End of Oct.—Nov. 12, 1874.)
It is a most sobering employment, the organizing
o f an African expedition. Y o u are constantly
eng a g ed , mind and b od y ; now in casting up
accounts, and now travelling to and fro hurriedly
to receive messengers, inspecting purchases,
bargaining with keen-eyed, relentless Hindi
merchants, writing memoranda, haggling over
extortionate prices, packing up a multitude o f
small utilities, pondering upon yo u r lists o f
articles, wanted, purchased, and unpurchased,
groping about in the recesses o f a highly ex e r cised
imagination for what yo u ought to purchase,
and cannot do without, superintending, arranging,
assorting, and packing. A n d this under a
temperature o f 950 Fahr.
In the midst o f all this terrific, high-pressure
exercise arrives the first batch o f applicants for
employment. F o r it b a s i n g ago been bruited
abroad that I am ready to enlist all able-bodied
human beings willing to carry a load, be th ey
Wangwana or Wanyamwezi, Wagalla, Somali,
Wasagara, Wayow, Wajindo, W a go go , or Wa-
zaramo. Eve r since I arrived at Zanzibar, since
which date^ I have been absent exploring the
ji river I have had a v e ry good reputation
among Arabs and Wangwana. T h e y have not
forgotten that it was I who found the “ old white
man -L iv in g s t o n e - in Ujiji, nor that liberality
and kindness to my men were my special
characteristics. T h e y have also, with the true
Oriental spirit o f exaggeration, proclaimed that
I was but a few months absent; and that, after
this brief excursion, they returned to their homes
to enjoy the hberal p a y awarded them, feeling-
I rather the better for the trip than otherwise.
This unsought-for reputation brought on me the
laborious task o f selecting proper men out o f
an extraordinary number o f applicants. Almost
all the cnpples, the palsied, the consumptive
and the superannuated that Zanzibar could furnish
applied to be enrolled on the muster list, but
w eSe, subjected to a searching examination,
ere refused. Hard upon their heels came all
the roughs, rowdies, and ruffians o f the island,
and these, schooled b y their fellows, were not
AppeIdL.aCC° Unt ° f ^ eXpl° rati0n> see W account ia