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

nor blind

to his pilfering tricks, though the 3,500 doti were all spent;

though I had only obtained one hundred and thirty pagazis at 25

doti each, which in the aggregate amounted to 3,200 doti: Soor

Hadji Palloo’s bill was $1,400 cash extra. His plea was that he

had furnished Ulyah clothes for Muhongo 240 doti, equal in value to

960 of my doti, that the money was spent in ferry pice, in

presents to chiefs of caravans of tents, guns, red broad cloth, in

presents to people on the Mrima (coast) to induce them to hunt up

pagazis. Upon this exhibition of most ruthless cheating I waxed

indignant, and declared to him that if he did not run over his bill

and correct it, he should go without a pice.

 

But before the bill could be put into proper shape, my words,

threats, and promises falling heedlessly on a stony brain, a man,

Kanjee by name, from the store of Tarya Topan, of Zanzibar, had to

come over, when the bill was finally reduced to $738. Without any

disrespect to Tarya Topan, I am unable to decide which is the most

accomplished rascal, Kanjee, or young Soor Hadji Palloo; in the

words of a white man who knows them both, “there is not the

splitting of a straw between them.” Kanjee is deep and sly, Soor

Hadji Palloo is bold and incorrigible. But peace be to them both,

may their shaven heads never be covered with the troublous crown

I wore at Bagamoyo!

 

My dear friendly reader, do not think, if I speak out my mind in

this or in any other chapter upon matters seemingly trivial and

unimportant, that seeming such they should be left unmentioned.

Every tittle related is a fact, and to knew facts is to receive

knowledge.

 

How could I ever recite my experience to you if I did not enter

upon these miserable details, which sorely distract the stranger

upon his first arrival? Had I been a Government official, I had

but wagged my finger and my quota of pagazis had been furnished

me within a week; but as an individual arriving without the graces

of official recognition, armed with no Government influence, I had

to be patient, bide my time, and chew the cud of irritation

quietly, but the bread I ate was not all sour, as this was.

 

The white men, Farquhar and Shaw, were kept steadily at work upon

waterproof tents of hemp canvas, for I perceived, by the

premonitory showers of rain that marked the approach of the Masika

that an ordinary tent of light cloth would subject myself to damp

and my goods to mildew, and while there was time to rectify all

errors that had crept into my plans through ignorance or over

haste, I thought it was not wise to permit things to rectify

themselves. Now that I have returned uninjured in health, though

I have suffered the attacks of twenty-three fevers within the short

space of thirteen months; I must confess I owe my life, first, to

the mercy of God; secondly, to the enthusiasm for my work, which

animated me from the beginning to the end; thirdly, to having

never ruined my constitution by indulgence in vice and

intemperance; fourthly, to the energy of my nature; fifthly, to

a native hopefulness which never died; and, sixthly, to having

furnished myself with a capacious water and damp proof canvas

house. And here, if my experience may be of value, I would

suggest that travellers, instead of submitting their better

judgment to the caprices of a tent-maker, who will endeavour to

pass off a handsomely made fabric of his own, which is unsuited

to all climes, to use his own judgment, and get the best and

strongest that money will buy. In the end it will prove the

cheapest, and perhaps be the means of saving his life.

 

On one point I failed,, and lest new and young travellers fall into

the same error which marred much of my enjoyment, this paragraph

is written. One must be extremely careful in his choice of

weapons, whether for sport or defence. A traveller should have at

least three different kinds of guns. One should be a fowling-piece,

the second should be a double-barrelled rifle, No. 10 or 12, the

third should be a magazine-rifle, for defence. For the fowling-piece

I would suggest No. 12 bore, with barrels at least four feet in length.

For the rifle for larger game, I would point out, with due deference

to old sportsmen, of course, that the best guns for African game

are the English Lancaster and Reilly rifles; and for a fighting

weapon, I maintain that the best yet invented is the American

Winchester repeating rifle, or the “sixteen, shooter” as it is

called, supplied with the London Eley’s ammunition. If I suggest

as a fighting weapon the American Winchester, I do not mean that

the traveller need take it for the purpose of offence, but as

the beat means of efficient defence, to save his own life against

African banditti, when attacked, a thing likely to happen any time.

 

I met a young man soon after returning from the interior, who

declared his conviction that the “Express,” rifle was the most

perfect weapon ever invented to destroy African game. Very

possibly the young man may be right, and that the “Express “

rifle is all he declares it to be, but he had never practised with

it against African game, and as I had never tried it, I could not

combat his assertion: but I could relate my experiences with weapons,

having all the penetrating powers of the “Express,” and could

inform him that though the bullets penetrated through the animals,

they almost always failed to bring down the game at the first fire.

On the other hand, I could inform him, that during the time I

travelled with Dr. Livingstone the Doctor lent me his heavy Reilly

rifle with which I seldom failed to bring an animal or two home

to the camp, and that I found the Fraser shell answer all purposes

for which it was intended. The feats related by Capt. Speke and

Sir Samuel Baker are no longer matter of wonderment to the young

]sportsman, when he has a Lancaster or a Reilly in his hand.

After very few trials he can imitate them, if not excel their

Leeds, provided he has a steady hand. And it is to forward this

end that this paragraph is written. African game require

“bone-crushers;” for any ordinary carbine possesses sufficient

penetrative qualities, yet has not he disabling qualities which

a gun must possess to be useful in the hands of an African explorer.

 

I had not been long at Bagamoyo before I went over to Mussoudi’s

camp, to visit the “Livingstone caravan” which the British Consul

had despatched on the first day of November, 1870, to the relief of

Livingstone. The number of packages was thirty-five, which required

as many men to convey them to Unyanyembe. The men chosen to escort

this caravan were composed of Johannese and Wahiyow, seven in number.

Out of the seven, four were slaves. They lived in clover here—

thoughtless of the errand they had been sent upon, and careless of

the consequences. What these men were doing at Bagamoyo all this

time I never could conceive, except indulging their own vicious

propensities. It would be nonsense to say there were no pagazis;

because I know there were at least fifteen caravans which had

started for the interior since the Ramadan (December 15th, 1870).

Yet Livingstone’s caravan had arrived at this little town of Bagamoyo

November 2nd, and here it had been lying until the 10th February,

in all, 100 days, for lack of the limited number of thirty-five

pagazis, a number that might be procured within two days through

consular influence.

 

Bagamoyo has a most enjoyable climate. It is far preferable in

every sense to that of Zanzibar. We were able to sleep in the

open air, and rose refreshed and healthy each morning, to enjoy

our matutinal bath in the sea; and by the time the sun had risen

we were engaged in various preparations for our departure for the

interior. Our days were enlivened by visits from the Arabs who

were also bound for Unyanyembe; by comical scenes in the camp;

sometimes by court-martials held on the refractory; by a

boxing-match between Farquhar and Shaw, necessitating my prudent

interference when they waxed too wroth; by a hunting excursion

now and then to the Kingani plain and river; by social

conversation with the old Jemadar and his band of Baluches, who

were never tired of warning me that the Masika was at hand, and of

advising me that my best course was to hurry on before the season

for travelling expired.

 

Among the employees with the Expedition were two Hindi and two

Goanese. They had conceived the idea that the African interior

was an El Dorado, the ground of which was strewn over with ivory

tusks, and they had clubbed together; while their imaginations

were thus heated, to embark in a little enterprise of their own.

Their names were Jako, Abdul Kader, Bunder Salaam, and Aranselar;

Jako engaged in my service, as carpenter and general help; Abdul

Kader as a tailor, Bunder Salaam as cook, and Aranselar as chief

butler.

 

But Aranselar, with an intuitive eye, foresaw that I was likely to

prove a vigorous employer, and while there was yet time he devoted

most of it to conceive how it were possible to withdraw from the

engagement. He received permission upon asking for it to go to

Zanzibar to visit his friends. Two days afterwards I was informed

he had blown his right eye out, and received a medical confirmation

of the fact, and note of the extent of the injury, from Dr.

Christie, the physician to His Highness Seyd Burghash. His

compatriots I imagined were about planning the same thing, but a

peremptory command to abstain from such folly, issued after they

had received their advance-pay, sufficed to check any sinister

designs they may have formed.

 

A groom was caught stealing from the bales, one night, and the

chase after him into the country until he vanished out of sight

into the jungle, was one of the most agreeable diversions which

occurred to wear away the interval employed in preparing for the

march.

 

I had now despatched four caravans into the interior, and the

fifth, which was to carry the boats and boxes, personal luggage,

and a few cloth and bead loads, was ready to be led by myself.

The following is the order of departure of the caravans.

 

1871. Feb. 6.—Expedition arrived at Bagamoyo.

 

1871. Feb. 18.—First caravan departs with twenty-four pagazis and

three soldiers.

 

1871. Feb. 21.—Second caravan departs with twenty-eight pagazis,

two chiefs, and two soldiers.

 

1871. Feb. 25.—Third caravan departs with twenty-two pagazis,

ten donkeys, one white man, one cook, and three soldiers.

 

1871. March. 11.—Fourth caravan departs with fifty-five pagazis,

two chiefs, and three soldiers.

 

1871. March. 21.—Fifth caravan departs with twenty-eight pagazis,

twelve soldiers, two white men, one tailor, one cook, one interpreter,

one gunbearer, seventeen asses, two horses, and one dog.

 

Total number, inclusive of all souls, comprised in caravans

connected with the “New York Herald’ Expedition,” 192.

 

CHAPTER V. THROUGH UKWERE, UKAMI, AND UDOE TO USEGUHHA.

 

Leaving Bagamoyo for the interior.—Constructing a Bridge.—Our

first troubles.—Shooting Hippopotami.—A first view of the Game

Land.—Anticipating trouble with the Wagogo.—The dreadful poison-flies.—Unlucky adventures while hunting.—The cunning chief of

Kingaru.—Sudden death of my two horses.—A terrible experience.—

The city of the “Lion Lord.”

 

On the 21st of March, exactly seventy-three days after my arrival

at Zanzibar, the fifth caravan, led by myself, left the town of

Bagamoyo for our first journey westward, with “Forward!” for its