How I Found Livingstone, Henry M. Stanley [best fantasy books to read txt] 📗

was that he was ready to do whatever I told him, go

wherever I liked in short, be a pattern to servants, and a model

to soldiers. He hoped I would give him a uniform, and a good gun,

both of which were promised.

 

Upon inquiring for the rest of the “Faithfuls” who accompanied

Speke into Egypt, I was told that at Zanzibar there were but six.

Ferrajji, Maktub, Sadik, Sunguru, Manyu, Matajari, Mkata, and

Almas, were dead; Uledi and Mtamani were in Unyanyembe; Hassan

had gone to Kilwa, and Ferahan was supposed to be in Ujiji.

 

Out of the six “Faithfuls,” each of whom still retained his medal

for assisting in the “Discovery of the Sources of the Nile,” one,

poor Mabruki, had met with a sad misfortune, which I feared would

incapacitate him from active usefulness.

 

Mabruki the “Bullheaded,” owned a shamba (or a house with a garden

attached to it), of which he was very proud. Close to him lived a

neighbour in similar circumstances, who was a soldier of Seyd

Majid, with whom Mabruki, who was of a quarrelsome disposition, had

a feud, which culminated in the soldier inducing two or three of

his comrades to assist him in punishing the malevolent Mabruki, and

this was done in a manner that only the heart of an African could

conceive. They tied the unfortunate fellow by his wrists to a

branch of a tree, and after indulging their brutal appetite for

revenge in torturing him, left him to hang in that position for

two days. At the expiration of the second day, he was accidentally

discovered in a most pitiable condition. His hands had swollen to

an immense size, and the veins of one hand having been ruptured,

he had lost its use. It is needless to say that, when the affair

came to Seyd Majid’s ears, the miscreants were severely punished.

Dr. Kirk, who attended the poor fellow, succeeded in restoring one

hand to something of a resemblance of its former shape, but the

other hand is sadly marred, and its former usefulness gone for

ever.

 

However, I engaged Mabruki, despite his deformed hands, his

ugliness and vanity, because he was one of Speke’s “Faithfuls.” For

if he but wagged his tongue in my service, kept his eyes open, and

opened his mouth at the proper time, I assured myself I could make

him useful.

 

Bombay, my captain of escort, succeeded in getting eighteen more

free men to volunteer as “askari” (soldiers), men whom he knew

would not desert, and for whom he declared himself responsible.

They were an exceedingly fine-looking body of men, far more

intelligent in appearance than I could ever have believed African

barbarians could be. They hailed principally from Uhiyow, others

from Unyamwezi, some came from Useguhha and Ugindo.

 

Their wages were set down at $36 each man per annum, or $3 each per

month. Each soldier was provided with a flintlock musket, powder

horn, bullet-pouch, knife, and hatchet, besides enough powder and

ball for 200 rounds.

 

Bombay, in consideration of his rank, and previous faithful

services to Burton, Speke and Grant, was engaged at $80 a year,

half that sum in advance, a good muzzle-loading rifle, besides, a

pistol, knife, and hatchet were given to him, while the other five

“Faithfuls,” Ambari, Mabruki, Ulimengo, Baruti, and Uledi, were

engaged at $40 a year, with proper equipments as soldiers.

 

Having studied fairly well all the East African travellers’ books

regarding Eastern and Central Africa, my mind had conceived the

difficulties which would present themselves during the prosecution

of my search after Dr. Livingstone.

 

To obviate all of these, as well as human wit could suggest, was

my constant thought and aim.

 

“Shall I permit myself, while looking from Ujiji over the waters of

the Tanganika Lake to the other side, to be balked on the threshold

of success by the insolence of a King Kannena or the caprice of a

Hamed bin Sulayyam?” was a question I asked myself. To guard

against such a contingency I determined to carry my own boats.

“Then,” I thought, “if I hear of Livingstone being on the

Tanganika, I can launch my boat and proceed after him.”

 

I procured one large boat, capable of carrying twenty persons,

with stores and goods sufficient for a cruise, from the American

Consul, for the sum of $80, and a smaller one from another American

gentleman for $40. The latter would hold comfortably six men,

with suitable stores.

 

I did not intend to carry the boats whole or bodily, but to strip

them of their boards, and carry the timbers and thwarts only. As

a substitute for the boards, I proposed to cover each boat with a

double canvas skin well tarred. The work of stripping them and

taking them to pieces fell to me. This little job occupied me

five days.

 

I also packed them up, for the pagazis. Each load was carefully

weighed, and none exceeded 68 lbs. in weight. John Shaw excelled

himself in the workmanship displayed on the canvas boats; when

finished, they fitted their frames admirably. The canvas—six

bolts of English hemp, No. 3—was procured from Ludha Damji,

who furnished it from the Sultan’s storeroom.

 

An insuperable obstacle to rapid transit in Africa is the want of

carriers, and as speed was the main object of the Expedition under

my command, my duty was to lessen this difficulty as much as

possible. My carriers could only be engaged after arriving at

Bagamoyo, on the mainland. I had over twenty good donkeys ready,

and I thought a cart adapted for the footpaths of Africa might

prove an advantage. Accordingly I had a cart constructed,

eighteen inches wide and five feet long, supplied with two

fore-wheels of a light American wagon, more for the purpose of

conveying the narrow ammunition-boxes. I estimated that if a

donkey could carry to Unyanyembe a load of four frasilahs,

or 140 lbs., he ought to be able to draw eight frasilahs on such

a cart, which would be equal to the carrying capacity of four

stout pagazis or carriers. Events will prove, how my theories

were borne out by practice.

 

When my purchases were completed, and I beheld them piled up, tier

after tier, row upon row, here a mass of cooking-utensils, there

bundles of rope, tents, saddles, a pile of portmanteaus and boxes,

containing every imaginable thing, I confess I was rather abashed

at my own temerity. Here were at least six tons of material!

“How will it ever be possible,” I thought, “to move all this inert

mass across the wilderness stretching between the sea, and the

great lakes of Africa? Bah, cast all doubts away, man, and have

at them! `Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,’ without

borrowing from the morrow.”

 

The traveller must needs make his way into the African interior

after a fashion very different from that to which he has been

accustomed in other countries. He requires to take with him just

what a ship must have when about to sail on a long voyage. He

must have his slop chest, his little store of canned dainties,

and his medicines, besides which, he must have enough guns, powder,

and ball to be able to make a series of good fights if necessary.

He must have men to convey these miscellaneous articles; and as a

man’s maximum load does not exceed 70 lbs., to convey 11,000 lbs.

requires nearly 160 men.

 

Europe and the Orient, even Arabia and Turkestan, have royal ways

of travelling compared to Africa. Specie is received in all those

countries, by which a traveller may carry his means about with

him on his own person. Eastern and Central Africa, however, demand

a necklace, instead of a cent; two yards of American sheeting,

instead of half a dollar, or a florin, and a kitindi of thick

brass-wire, in place of a gold piece.

 

The African traveller can hire neither wagons nor camels, neither

horses nor mules, to proceed with him into the interior. His means

of conveyance are limited to black and naked men, who demand at

least $15 a head for every 70 lbs. weight carried only as far as

Unyanyembe.

 

One thing amongst others my predecessors omitted to inform men

bound for Africa, which is of importance, and that is, that no

traveller should ever think of coming to Zanzibar with his money

in any other shape than gold coin. Letters of credit, circular

notes, and such civilized things I have found to be a century

ahead of Zanzibar people.

 

Twenty and twenty-five cents deducted out of every dollar I drew

on paper is one of the unpleasant, if not unpleasantest things I

have committed to lasting memory. For Zanzibar is a spot far

removed from all avenues of European commerce, and coin is at a

high premium. A man may talk and entreat, but though he may have

drafts, cheques, circular notes, letters of credit, a carte blanche

to get what he wants, out of every dollar must, be deducted twenty,

twenty-five and thirty cents, so I was told, and so was my

experience. What a pity there is no branch-bank here!

 

I had intended to have gone into Africa incognito. But the fact

that a white man, even an American, was about to enter Africa was

soon known all over Zanzibar. This fact was repeated a thousand

times in the streets, proclaimed in all shop alcoves, and at the

custom-house. The native bazaar laid hold of it, and agitated it

day and night until my departure. The foreigners, including the

Europeans, wished to know the pros and cons of my coming in and

going out.

 

My answer to all questions, pertinent and impertinent, was, I am

going to Africa. Though my card bore the words

 

________________________________________

| |

| HENRY M. STANLEY. |

| |

| |

| New York Herald. |

|________________________________________|

 

very few, I believe, ever coupled the words `New York Herald’

with a search after “Doctor Livingstone.” It was not my fault,

was it?

 

Ah, me! what hard work it is to start an expedition alone! What

with hurrying through the baking heat of the fierce relentless sun

from shop to shop, strengthening myself with far-reaching and

enduring patience far the haggling contest with the livid-faced

Hindi, summoning courage and wit to brow-beat the villainous Goanese,

and match the foxy Banyan, talking volumes throughout the day,

correcting estimates, making up accounts, superintending the

delivery of purchased articles, measuring and weighing them, to see

that everything was of full measure and weight, overseeing the white

men Farquhar and Shaw, who were busy on donkey saddles, sails, tents,

and boats for the Expedition, I felt, when the day was over, as

though limbs and brain well deserved their rest. Such labours were

mine unremittingly for a month.

 

Having bartered drafts on Mr. James Gordon Bennett to the amount

of several thousand dollars for cloth, beads, wire, donkeys, and

a thousand necessaries, having advanced pay to the white men, and

black escort of the Expedition, having fretted Capt. Webb and his

family more than enough with the din of preparation, and filled

his house with my goods, there was nothing further to do but to

leave my formal adieus with the Europeans, and thank the Sultan

and those gentlemen who had assisted me, before embarking for

Bagamoyo.

 

The day before my departure from Zanzibar the American Consul,

having just habited himself in his black coat, and taking with him

an extra black hat, in order to be in state apparel, proceeded with

me to the Sultan’s palace. The prince had been generous to me;

he had presented me with an Arab horse, had furnished me with

letters of introduction to his agents, his chief men, and

representatives in the interior,