DIVIDING THE STORES 



9 



of our plans when we first met, and it was only now that 

 Count Teleki and myself decided on the course which we were 

 fortunate enough to be able to carry out in every particular. 

 We were able to set quietly about our preparations, and with 

 the help of General Matthews to decide exactly what we really 

 did require. First of all we made an agreement with Jumbe 

 Kimemeta, according to which he undertook to accompany the 

 Expedition for the sum of 2,000 dollars. He was also to carry 

 the necessary articles for barter by the way, and to superintend 

 the packing of the same in the customary way. He could not 

 begin this work yet, however, as he had first to go home to 

 Pangani to settle certain affairs of his own, as well as to hire 

 a number of men and to buy some grey donkeys as beasts of 

 burden for us. 



Meanwhile we had to divide the stores brought from 

 Europe into loads of 5|- stone each, and to repack them in 

 proper style. There were tents, camp-stools, tables, beds, 

 instruments, saws, axes, knives, provisions, ammunition, boats, 

 masts, sails, cordage, metal goods, packing-cloths, and the 

 hundred-and-one things needed for an expedition of several 

 years' duration ; but there was no immediate hurry, and gradu- 

 ally chest after chest was packed of the right jDroportions, 

 weighed, catalogued, sealed up, and marked with a number 

 indicating its contents. 



So we were very busy all day long in the house I had hired 

 for the purpose, and only when the sun began to sink behind the 

 dark blue mountains of the mainland did we relax our toil, and 

 indulge in a ride in the beautiful environs of Zanzibar on the 

 grey donkeys 1 Count Teleki had bought for our use. A fre- 

 quent companion of these rides was the German Bear-Admiral 



1 These donkeys really are mules, and come from Muscat, in Arabia. They 

 are, however, always called donkeys, and are held in high esteem by wealthy 

 Arabs and East Indians on account of their fine pace. They are, of course, propor- 

 tionately dear, the price varying from 50 to 250 dollars. 



