122 • ACEOSS AFRICA. [Cil^p. 



October, ^^ Octoher ISt/i. — Since I wrote the last, I have been quite 

 1873. blind of both eyes, and very bad indeed with fever ; so I have 

 been helpless. 



" These horrible fevers and my blindness have quite prevent- 

 ed my doing any thing since I last wrote, and my eyes now are 

 any thing but perfect in work or feeling ; however, they are 

 now getting better rapidly ; but, of course, the moon has passed, 

 and I have got no lunars." 



Tlie above is sufhcient to show how constantly we were 

 ill; and of this the men took advantage to absent themselves. 

 They also worried us into allowing them extra provisions and 

 cloth, which they well knew would have been refused but for 

 our illness. I managed to hold out against their importuni- 

 ties ; but while I was delirious they asked Dillon and Murjjhy 

 to allow their rations to be doubled, and, by dint of persisting, 

 obtained compliance. 



In consequence of the great losses we sustained by the deser- 

 tion of pagazi, I was obliged to buy cloth at a price four times as 

 high as at Zanzibar, or we should have been regularly stranded. 



The Arabs were perfectly right in charging this price, since 

 no caravans from the coast had ai-rived for some time, and 

 stores had become very scarce. In fact, I can not speak too 

 highly of the behavior of the upper classes of Arabs toward us 

 during our stay at Unyanyembe. 



When we were ill, they called or sent daily to inquire for us ; 

 and limes, tamarinds, and other fruits, as also dishes of well- 

 cooked curry, far beyond the attainments of our own cordon 

 bleu, were constantly sent to us, besides such presents as a bul- 

 lock, a goat, a dozen fowls, or a basket of eggs. In our inter- 

 vals of convalescence we used to return their calls, and were al- 

 ways most warmly welcomed. 



Hearing that a great auction was to be held at Taborah for 

 the sale of the effects of some Arabs who had been killed while 

 lighting with the Warori — a savage tribe whose territory lies 

 in the route to the southern end of the Tanganyika — I went to 

 see their manner of conducting it. 



In two large rooms were assembled nearly a hundred and fif- 

 ty traders — Arabs, Wasuahili, and Wamerima — and three men 

 acted as auctioneers. 



