332 ACROSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



April, When leaving Jumah Merikani's house, where I had experi- 



1875. enced the greatest hospitality during my long stay, he gave me 

 a present of beads, two goat-skin bags of good flour, and one of 

 rice, thus adding to the many benefits he had bestowed on me ; 

 and while at Totela, he constantly sent rice to me ; so much, 

 indeed, that it lasted me to Bihe. 



It soon became evident that if the building operations were 

 left to Alvez and his motley crowd, years would elapse before 

 the house would be finished ; so I set my men to work and 

 completed it in three weeks, excepting plastering and decora- 

 ting the walls, which was done by Kasongo's women under the 

 direction of Fume a Kenna. In the l)eginning of April the 

 house was finished, but nothing was known of the Kanyoka 

 . party. I therefore sent a few of my people with some of Al- 

 vez's men to endeavor to ascertain what had become of them. 



Kasongo soon grew tired of remaining in one place, and on 

 several occasions went away on plundering expeditions, accom- 

 panied by Coimbra, and ruffians belonging to Alvez's caravan, 

 who hoped by this means to pick up slaves. 



I tried my hardest to persuade him to give me canoes, that I 

 might go down the Lorn ami, and thus get back to the Kongo. 

 But it was no avail, and I had to remain inactive day after day. 

 Thus April passed without any signs of the return of the Kan- 

 yoka party, or any events worth recording. 



Some of my men, dreading the road in front, deserted, and 

 made their escape to Jumah Merikani's camp. Hearing of this, 

 he sent them back to me with a message for the guidance of 

 others similarly chicken-hearted, that all deserters would be im- 

 mediately returned to me, if possible, or be kept in chains un- 

 til he arrived at Zanzibar, where he would hand them over to 

 the English consul for punishment. But for this threat, I be- 

 lieve very many would have deserted. 



The time passed most heavily during this long delay, and I 

 found it necessary to make employment, to prevent becoming 

 desperate through vexation and ennui. Alany otherwise tedi- 

 ous hours were occupied in writing, drawing, taking lunars and 

 working them out, and in copying itineraries and meteorolog- 

 ical observations for my journals. In the evenings I frequent- 

 ly went out with my gun, and the guinea-fowl and wood-pig- 



