finally, at four o’clock, I fell from my horse, and was
compelled to lie under a tree for some time before I
could recover sufficient strength to move on. I sent the
camels on in front, and the donkeys followed. The
porters were not in sight, and my poor retrievers had
long since fallen to the rear. A t 5.30 I started after
my camels, and found them lying in a thick undergrowth,
surrounded by the donkeys and their drivers.
Where were the guides? It seemed, one of my
Soudanese (Herella) felt thirsty, and upon asking the
guides for water, and being told by them that it was
still some distance in front, flew into a passion and
began beating them; whereupon these gentle creatures
fled. This had not been reported to me, or perhaps I
might have caught them and brought them back. The
question now presented was: Where were we to get
water ? and its early, if not immediate solution was fast
becoming an important necessity. I sent a Somali to
look for it, and he soon returned with the welcome
intelligence that it was not far distant.
The tangled mass of undergrowth, in which my
camels and donkeys were found, was so thick that I
found it necessary to cut a road for them. All the
available men were set to work with axes, and by 6.30 a
road was completed. A t 7 we managed to reach a pool
of water formed by the back-wash of the Tana during
the rainy season. There the camels and donkeys,
together with twenty men, formed the only visible portion
of my caravan. I sent the twenty men back, laden
with water, to my struggling porters. This done, I
threw myself down to rest, but not to sleep. All
through the night the men straggled in by twos and
threes; I had the tomtom beaten, and guns fired at
intervals, to inform them of my whereabouts. A t 1 a .m .
George reached me, and reported that the dogs had
died at a point far in the rear; also, that Mohamadi,
the second headman, and eight of the men whom I
had sent back with him in search of the flannel and
blankets, were not far away. He also reported a rumour
that one of my men had been drowned in crossing the
river, and that shots had been fired at the Pokomo, resulting
in the death of one or two of them. This was
sufficient for one day, so I went to sleep, thoroughly worn
out.W
hen I awoke in the morning, all the men had
arrived. I called Mohamadi, and questioned him as
to the rumours of trouble with the natives. He said
that he with his eight men had searched along the
road for the lost load, and, not finding it, had crossed
the river to the village of Sissini, to search there.
During the search his men had been attacked by
the natives ; and, as his force had but six cartridges
in all, they were soon driven out, and in crossing the
river one of my men and five rifles had been lost.
Upon cross-questioning him, it appeared to me that his
story was false. Knowing, as I did, the peaceful character
of the Pokomo, and the lawlessness of the Zanzibari,
I had no doubt that, instead of searching for the cloth,
they had devoted their time to raiding, and had at
length forced the poor natives to resistance. I punished
Mohamadi sufficiently for his breach of discipline.
Lieutenant von Hohnel was at Tuni, and I learned
that that point was but a short distance from our
stopping-place. Accordingly, as rain was expected, and