98 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



thirty- second loss in asses since leaving Zanzibar. 

 My load of beads was now out, and I had to pur- 

 chase rations with cloth a necessary measure, but 

 not economical, for the cloth does not go half as far 

 as beads of the same value. I have remarked through- 

 out this trip, that in all places where Arabs are not 

 much in the habit of trading, very few cloths find 

 their way, and in consequence the people take to 

 wearing beads ; and beads and baubles are the only 

 foreign things much in requisition. 



As remarks upon the relative valuation of com- 

 modities appear in various places in this diary, I will 

 endeavour to give a general idea how it is that I have 

 found this plentiful country quite beyond any other 

 I have seen in Africa in fertility and stock so com- 

 paratively dear to travel in. The Zanzibar route to 

 Ujiji is now so constantly travelled over by Arabs 

 and Sowahilis, that the people, seeing the caravans 

 approach, erect temporary markets, or come hawking 

 things for sale, and the prices are adapted to the 

 abilities of the purchasers ; and at such markets our 

 Shaykh bought for us, and transacted all business. 

 It is also to be observed that where things are brought 

 for sale, they are invariably cheaper than in those 

 places where one has to seek and ask for them ; for 

 in the one instance a livelihood is the consequence 

 of trade, whereas in the other a chance purchaser is 

 treated as a windfall to be made the most of. ISTow 

 this line is just the opposite to the Ujiji one, and 



