General upon the death of Sir Gerald Portal, had
been forced to leave Zanzibar on account of illness,
and at the time of my arrival in Zanzibar, affairs there
were managed by General Matthews and the acting
British Agent and Consul-General, a Mr. Cracknell,
who for many- years had been the judge of the
British Consular Court. Had there been a regularly
accredited agent in Zanzibar when I arrived, I feel
certain that the difficulties I met with would not
have occurred; but owing to the fact that affairs were
in the hands of men who had been for many years
inhabitants of the coast of East Africa, and as a
natural result of long stays had become in large
measure Arabized in character, I found that instead
of pursuing the simple and direct road to justice, the
treatment of my affairs was made subservient to purely
local, and I may also say private, ends.
When I paid my visit to General Sir Lloyd Matthews,
I was surprised to find that, without waiting
until I had arrived and stated my case, that gentleman
had come to the conclusion that my porters were
justified in their desertion, and he had therefore taken
it upon himself to order my agent to supply them
with means of transport to Zanzibar, and with food
after their arrival there. This action of General Matthews
was another wholly without precedent.
The difficulties and dangers incident to the management
of a caravan consisting of a large number of
half-savage porters would be so great as to render
exploration absolutely impossible, were it not for the
fact that the traveller can feel assured that any ill
behaviour or desertion on the part of his men will
meet with prompt punishment upon their return to
the coast at Zanzibar. It is this knowledge alone
which has prevented not only the desertion of entire
caravans, but in many cases the massacre of the European
in charge. Up to the time of the arrival of my
deserters at the coast, runaways upon reaching Zanzibar
had invariably been promptly imprisoned and held
until the European should arrive and testify against
them. As can readily be supposed, negroes who desert
from a caravan have plenty of time on their way
C o c o a n u t -o i l M i l l
to the coast to invent a plausible story explaining
their desertion; but these stories, as the Europeans in
Zanzibar well knew the character of the Zanzibari, were
never credited until the arrival of the European with
his side of the story.
Upon visiting General Matthews, and demanding
the punishment of the men who had ruined my expedition,
I was not offered assistance, or even asked
to tell my story; but, on the other hand, was met
with a demand on the part of the Government of Zanzibar
for the full amount of the pay due these men