had small-pox. Although we Europeans feared such
was the case, we were forced, in order to restore confidence
to our people, to treat this man ourselves; and,
happily, with no ill result.
If there is one thing a native African likes more than
any other, that thing is sympathy, be its form of expression
what it may; and in order to excite it, he will
adopt any means, and go to any length. When our
men first caught sight of the medicine chest, and the
different-coloured medicines, the list of sick and ailing
was enormous. A few doses of the most nauseous
drugs, however, soon reduced the' list of applicants to
reasonable proportions, which saved our stock of medicine
from premature exhaustion.
As the day set for our departure from Mkonumbi
drew near, I sent sixty loads of millet and forty-one
loads of my trading-goods to Kau, the point at which it
had been arranged the canoes should be in readiness. I
placed in charge of these Mohamet Aman and four
Zanzibari. These men I instructed to convey the
canoes to Kinakombe, distant up the Tana some eighty
miles. A t specified points along the route they were to
deposit with the natives stores of food for my caravan;
and upon reaching Kinakombe they were to await my
arrival. ;
Reports had reached me that the inhabitants of the
Tana district were starving, and would therefore be
unable to sell food; for, owing to the repeated raids
of the Pumwani and Jongeni people, they had not
been permitted to devote the usual time to the cultivation
of crops; To obviate this we sent these canoeloads
of food.