CHAPTER XI. 



TO LAKE KIVU TO JOIN AN EXPEDITION, AND BACK 

 TO MBARARA. 



Mbarara had been constituted the base of the 

 expedition, and here I set to work on preparations 

 of every kind. My baggage had to be cut down to 

 a minimum ; 2,400 rations had to be collected ; 

 88,000 rounds of ammunition counted out ; fresh 

 porters to be indented for, and the old ones paid 

 off; my soldiers to be paid up ; an escort for specie 

 to be furnished ; a small garrison to be left behind ; 

 complaints and difficulties to be settled ; official 

 letters to be thought out, to say nothing of my own 

 private wants ; and as time was everything, it was 

 all hurry and scurry. I was continually wondering 

 what could be the object of the expedition, and 

 for a small armed party to march over the Congo 

 border seemed to me to be inviting disaster, but my 

 orders were imperative. 



The next day saw me again on my way with 

 a "safari "of two hundred porters, though not till 

 4.30 in the afternoon, and by the time the last 

 remnants were well out of Mbarara the evening- sun 

 was softening the angular outlines of the distant 

 scenery with its dying rays. 



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