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TRAVELS m EASTERN AFRICA 



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The presence of this tribe in the part of the country to 

 which I have referred we took for granted ; and the fact 

 that they were possessed of beasts of burden, suitable 

 for the purposes of a caravan, entered largely into our 

 calculations. / 



In the make-up and personnel of our caravan we had 

 so arranged matters that, upon meeting this tribe, we 

 might renew our means of porterage (sure to be weak- 

 ened and reduced by the journey); we hoped that our 

 caravan, strengthened by this means, would be enabled 

 to proceed without difificulty for a great distance and 

 length of time in search of fresh fields for exploration. 



Both Lieutenant von Hohnel and I had come to the 

 conclusion, that the use of men as a means of porterage 

 was not only troublesome and costly, but, from the very 

 exigencies of African travel, cruel in the extreme. Our 

 ideas then turned in the direction of obviating, as far as 

 possible, the necessity of using men ; but not knowing 

 whether the climatic conditions of the country lying be- 

 tween the coast and the Rendile (from whom we hoped 

 to purchase cattle, etc.) were suited for beasts of burden, 

 we were forced to employ, at least for the outset of our 

 expedition, men for the transportation of our goods. 

 To these we added fifteen camels, fifty donkeys, and 

 ten oxen. The porters used in East Africa are the 

 people called "Zanzibari," and made famous by Stanley 

 and other travellers. Few of these people are natives of 

 Zanzibar — being mostly slaves bought by the Arabs 

 from the numerous tribes in the interior, and leased out 

 by their masters as porters to any European making up 

 a caravan. As is to be expected, their intelligence is 

 not of a high order, and they are accustomed to but one 



