the villages on both sides of the Sabaki were beating their
war-drums.
I had asked for fifteen soldiers to garrison No. 2 Stockade,
and fifteen Beluchis now arrived from Mombasa. They made
a most timely addition to our force, which now mustered eighty-
one guns. Mr. Burt also arrived from Melindi the same day,
and in the evening the Wasania head-man returned from a
reconnaissance beyond Makongeni, reporting all quiet and no
signs of a hostile party anywhere. Weaver astonished them
all considerably by exploding dynamite cartridges in the Sabaki
and killing no end of fish.
Next day, in the presence of Mr. Burt (who acted as interpreter)
and the various chiefs, I held an inquiry into the
origin of the report which had caused all this alarm and trouble.
I traced its source to some evil-disposed natives, who had given
a false alarm, hoping thus to scare Europeans away. With
the approval of the native chiefs I arrested the ringleader Ngoa,
and sent him down to the coast to be tried.
As soon as the strain was over, Weaver and I proceeded
straight to bed the moment dinner was over, and went off into
a dead sleep. Next morning I received a letter recalling me
to Melindi. I started at once, leaving Weaver at the camp,
and arrived there at 5 p.m., meeting Mr. and Mrs. Hooper, who
were returning once more to Jelori. I was very busy for the
next day or two preparing for my original expedition to the
stockade, and at length started on November 16 with thirty-
eight people, including the fifteen Beluchi askaris. The heat
during the march was excessive. When I reached a shamba
where I was to await Weaver’s arrival for breakfast, how glad
I was to get some coco-nuts ! the last I should taste for some
time. Ramazan had been drinking too much eau-de-cologne
at Melindi, the Company having prohibited the importation of
spirituous liquors, and he simply collapsed in the heat from the
effects of his dissipation, and could hardly crawl along. After
a long wait, Weaver at last turned up ; he had been having an
awful time with his people, a lot of them being drunk with the
native coco-nut toddy, and a good many more had deserted.
I left him a couple of my askaris to hunt up his absentees, and
got to Jelori at dusk, where. I had to put up my tent myself, as