always taken pains to keep the Somali and Soudanese
as separate as possible from the porters, I knew this
complaint was absolutely without foundation. I suspected
that it was not of their own volition that these
men had come to me with this complaint, and that
some member of the caravan was bent upon stirring
up discontent and strife; but despite all my efforts I
was unable to discover who the person was. The newcomers
seemed bent upon impressing it on my mind
that they held the key to the situation, which was
more or less true ; for they had received three months’
advance pay at the coast, and as yet the three months
had not expired; so that they had no particular
reason for remaining with me. The delay forced
upon me gave them lots of idle time for discussing
and plotting their purpose, as I could not make work
sufficient to occupy them all, and greater discontent
seemed to spread among them day by day. The men
I had sent to Sayer, upon their return complained
unceasingly of the condition of the road over which
they had been forced to march, and said they would
rather spend their lives on the road from Mombasa to
Uganda than walk five days over this lava-strewn soil.
I must say, I sympathized with them, for the road
was very bad; nevertheless, I had had no hand in
making it, and in walking over it I had suffered
nearly as much as they. I lay awake one entire
night pondering over the question presented by these
men, and finally concluded they were by no means a
favourable accession to my force. They were troublesome
and insubordinate; five of them had already
deserted, and the remainder seemed to favour a similar
course. I had but a few rifles, and I could not trust
these in the hands of men who would desert; for
when once the rifles were gone, we should have been
helpless in the presence of a horde of savages.
By this time the men who had left the coast with
me had become accustomed to hard travelling, were
good shots, and at all events were not likely to
desert, as each had a goodly sum of money to his
credit. Should the seventy-five donkeys purchased
by George at Ukambani arrive in safety, we should
be able to carry sufficient food to last the caravan
for many days. The greater the number of men one
has in a caravan, the more difficult to provide food.
Bearing this in mind, I decided to put a plain question
to the new-comers; namely, whether their wish
was to remain with me, or to return to the coast.
I felt all the more willing to do this, as I had not
instructed Hamidi to get so many men; but, on the
contrary, had limited the number to twenty. Acting
upon this idea, I called all the new-comers together,
and in a few words told them I was dissatisfied with
their behaviour, and wished to know whether or not
they cared to remain with me; that if there were
any of them who really cared for work, and would
promise on the Koran not to desert, I would engage
them. They one and all said they wished to return
to the coast. I gave them half an hour to pack
their clothes or change their minds. They still wished
to go, although I assured them I should give them no
rifles or food for their journey. “ Pwani! ” (Coast!)
they shouted; and off they went. A t their departure
I experienced a feeling of great relief; for as long as