X 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



455 



the food station in Sayer were six others. Besides, 

 there was at that time a caravan of thirty traders at 

 Daitcho, whom I thought it possible to induce to join 

 my expedition upon promising them large pay. If 

 the donkeys were not stolen, and the traders could 

 be induced to join me, I should then have a sufficient 

 force to reach Reschatt in the north, or, at all events, 

 to prolong my journey, and perhaps make some inter- 

 esting discoveries. I should not have felt so depressed 

 at the desertion of these men, had I not been con- 

 scious of having treated them so well ; but this was 

 a strengthening thought, as it convinced me that it was 

 through no ill treatment of mine that the break-up 

 in the caravan occurred. 



During the evening of the following day a mes- 

 senger came from the Beloochi, and said that he had 

 met Hamidi on the road, and that he and one of the 

 porters (Hussein) were then sleeping near by, and 

 would come to my camp early the following morning. 



Early the next morning, Gwaharam appeared with 

 Hamidi and the porter: they both carried rifles, which 

 they laid aside as they approached me. Hamidi 

 seemed very nervous, but the face of the porter wore 

 an air of braggadocio. In answer to my question, 

 " What is the matter } " Hamidi denied any knowl- 

 edge of the affair. He said that the men reached the 

 Tana on the afternoon of the day they left us, and 

 were in a most excited state, and he could get noth- 

 ing out of them, except that the time for which they 

 had enlisted had expired, and that they would go no 

 farther into an unknown country filled with savage 

 people like the Rendile. 



