132 ACEOSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



December, the poor fellow bad destroyed those letters which I had given 

 1873. }jjj^ fQp conveyance to the coast ; so I immediately commenced 

 wi-iting another account of the history and prospects of the ex- 

 pedition. 



Some of MurjDhy's men arrived with the information that he 

 had halted two days' march in front, and, having had some 

 cloth stolen from his tent, was sending to Said ibn Salim for a 

 further supply, to enable him to continue his journey to the 

 coast. 



Kasekerah was a large and neat village of fiat -topped huts, 

 surrounded by an outer stockade, and within an inner one was 

 an enormous circular hut, the residence of the chief, who was a 

 daughter of Mkasiwah, chief of all Unyanyembe. There were 

 deep verandas in front of many huts, several of which were 

 plastered with different colored earths, forming patterns. 



Again I had to wait for Bombay, and the day after his ar- 

 rival it rained too heavily for us to proceed. But on the 2d of 

 December we started, after the usual amount of bother, nine 

 men having disappeared directly rations had been served out. 



The askari, too, were inclined to give some trouble by set- 

 ting forward as a grievance that carrying flags and a drum was 

 not soldiers' work, but the duty of pagazi. Bombay caused me 

 much vexation by abetting the askari in their ridiculous pre- 

 tensions; and not until after four hours' hard work could I 

 start the caravan — minus the drum. 



Others made up their sleeping -mats, clothes, and personal 

 baggage to represent bales of cloth, and put them among the 

 loads ; and from their being much lighter than cloth or beads, 

 the pagazi singled them out, and displayed much anxiety to 

 carry them instead of their proper burdens. A short walk 

 through wooded country brought us tp Kigandah, the last vil- 

 lage in Unyanyembe ; and between it and Ugunda — the next 

 division of Unyamwezi — lay a march of six hours through vir- 

 gin forest. 



To guard against further desertions, I posted sentries at ev- 

 ery entrance to the village; but this precaution proved una- 

 vailing, and twenty -five men escaped, fragments of their scanty 

 clothing on the top of the palisades being sufficient, at the 

 dawn of day, to show the road they had taken. 



