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T R A V E L S I N E A S T E R N A F R IC A 423
A few days after my return from the Embe, Kar-
scho returned from the food station at Sayer, and
reported that the people I had left there were in a
state of great dissatisfaction owing to the conduct of
the Somali I had placed in charge of them; so I decided
to replace these men with others, choosing for
that purpose the most vigorous of the new-comers.
I also took this opportunity of increasing the store
of food at Sayer by sending with these men thirty
loads of flour. This, when added to the food already
at Sayer, would be a fortnight’s supply for my entire
caravan, and would enable us to set out from Daitcho
once more with the men less heavily laden than could
otherwise have* been the case.
My days were spent in drilling the new men in
the use of the rifle and in an attempt to make them
more amenable to discipline. I have never seen a
more lawless lot of wretches than these creatures
seemed to be. In former years many of them had
been engaged in fights against Europeans, particularly
one little clique of twenty, who for years had
followed the fortunes of Bushiri, an Arab patriot,
who had endeavoured to present the Germans from
taking that portion of East Africa which they had
claimed. Many of them bore scars of the wounds
received in that war, and boasted of the number
of Europeans they had slain. These men by their
boastings quickly became heroes in my camp.
On the 14th of October three men came to me
bearing a letter from George, which contained glad
tidings. On the road to Kibwezi he had fallen in
with a large caravan of Zanzibari, who were on their