Barker, and myself— and two for the sick: for
the latter there are also three of Seydels net
hammocks, with six men to act as a kind of
ambulance party.
T h ou gh we have not y e t received our full
complement o f men, necessity compels us to
move from the vicinity o f the Goanese liquor
shops, and from under the severe authority o f
Sheikh Mansur bin Suliman, whose views o f
justice would soon demoralize any expedition.
Accordingly at 9 A.M. o f the 17th, five days
after leaving Zanzibar, we filed out from the
town, receiving some complimentary and not a
few uncomplimentary parting words from the inhabitants,
male and female, who are out in
strong force to view the procession as follows:
— Four chiefs a few hundred' yards in front;
next the twelve guides clad in red robes of
Jobo, bearing the wire coils; then a long file
270 strong, bearing cloth, wire, beads, and sections
o f the Lady A lic e ; after them thirty-six
women and ten b o y s , children o f some o f the
chiefs and boat-bearers, following their mothers
and assisting them with trifling loads o f utensils,
followed b y the riding asses, Europeans and
gun-bearers; the long line closed b y sixteen
chiefs who act as rearguard, and whose duties
are to pick up stragglers, and act as supernumeraries
until other men can be procured, in
all, 356 souls connected with the Anglo-American
Expedition. The lengthy line occupies nearly
half a mile o f the path which at the present
day is the commercial and exploring highway
into the Lake regions.
Edward Pocock is kind enough to act as
bugler, because from long practice at the military
camps at Aldershot and Chatham he understands
the signals, and he has familiarized Ha-
madi, the chief guide, with its notes, so that in
case o f a halt being required, Hamadi may be
informed immediately. T he chief guide is also
armed with a prodigiously long horn o f ivory,
his favourite instrument, and one that belongs
to his profession, which he has permission to
use only when approaching a suitable camping-
p la c e , or to notify to us danger in the front.
Before Hamadi strides a chubby little b o y with
a native drum, which he is to beat only when
in the neighbourhood o f villages, to warn them
o f the advance o f a caravan, a caution most requisite,
for many villages are situated in the
midst o f a dense jungle, and the sudden arrival
o f a large force o f strangers before they had
time to hide their little belongings might awake
jealousy and distrust.
In this manner we begin our long journey,
full o f hopes. T he re is noise and laughter along
the ranks, and a hum o f g a y voices murmuring
through the fields, as we rise and descend with
the waves o f the land and wind with the sinuo