being eaten by Manyema cannibals. As neither
Frank nor I relished the idea of being compelled
to return to Zanzibar before we had obtained a
view of the Lualaba, I mustered as many as
would answer to their names; and out of these,
selecting such as appeared unstable and flighty,
I secured thirty-two, and surrounded our house
with guards.
After preparing the canoes and getting the
boat ready, those who did not bear a good
character for firmness and fidelity were conducted
under guard to the transport canoes; the firm
and faithful, and those believed to be so, were
permitted to march on land with myself towards
Kabogo Cape, or M’sehazy Creek, whence the
crossing of the Tanganika was to be effected.
Out of the 132 men, of whom the Expedition
now consisted, only thirty were entrusted with
guns, as my faith in the stability of the Wa-
ngwana was utterly destroyed, despite their protestations
to the contrary. I could afford to
lose weak, fearful, and unworthy men; but I
could not afford to lose one gun. Though we
had such a show of strength left, I was only
too conscious that there were barely forty reliable
and effective in a crisis, or in the presence of
danger; the rest were merely useful as bearers
of burdens, or porters.
When we resumed our journey the second
day from Ukaranga, three more were missing,
which swelled the number of desertions to forty-
one, and reduced our force to 129. After we
had crossed the Tanganika and arrived in Uguha,
two more disappeared, one of whom was young
Kalulu, whom I had taken to England and the
United States, and whom I had placed in an
English school for eighteen months.
Induced to do so by the hope that I should
secure their attachment to the cause of the E x pedition,
I had purchased from Sultan Bin Kassim
six bales of cloth at an enormous price, £350,
and had distributed them all among the people
gratuitously. This wholesale desertion at the
very period when their services were about to
be most needed was my reward! The desertion
and faithless conduct of Kalulu did not, as may
be imagined, augment my hopes, or increase
my faith in the fidelity of my people. * But it
determined me to recover some of the deserters.
Francis Pocock and the detective of the Expedition,
the ever faithful and gallant'Kacheche,
were therefore sent back with a squad to Ujiji,
with instructions how to act; and one night
Kacheche pounced upon six fellows, who, after
a hard and tough resistance, were secured;
and after his return to Uguha with these he
successfully recovered the runaway Kalulu on
Kasenge Island. These seven, along with a few
others arrested in the act of desertion, received
merited punishments , which put an end to mis