CHAP. IX 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN- AFRICA 



423 



A few days after my return from the Embe, Kar- 

 scho returned from the food station at Sayer, and 

 reported that the people I had left there were in a 

 state of great dissatisfaction owing to the conduct of 

 the Somali I had placed in charge of them ; so I de- 

 cided to replace these men with others, choosing for 

 that purpose the most vigorous of the new-comers. 

 I also took this opportunity of increasing the store 

 of food at Sayer by sending with these men thirty 

 loads of flour. This, when added to the food already 

 at Sayer, would be a fortnight's supply for my entire 

 caravan, and would enable us to set out from Daitcho 

 once more with the men less heavily laden than could 

 otherwise have been the case. 



My days were spent in drilling the new men in 

 the use of the rifle and in an attempt to make them 

 more amenable to discipline. I have never seen a 

 more lawless lot of wretches than these creatures 

 seemed to be. In former years many of them had 

 been engaged in fights against Europeans, particu- 

 larly one little clique of twenty, who for years had 

 followed the fortunes of Bushiri, an Arab patriot, 

 who had endeavoured to prevent the Germans from 

 taking that portion of East Africa which they had 

 claimed. Many of them bore scars of the wounds 

 received in that war, and boasted of the number 

 of Europeans they had slain. These men by their 

 boastings quickly became heroes in my camp. 



On the 14th of October three men came to me 

 bearing a letter from George, which contained glad 

 tidings. On the road to Kibwezi he had fallen in 

 with a large caravan of Zanzibari, who were on their 



