TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



465 



had sent the following orders to Mwalhn Hamis, who 

 represented Hamidi at the zeriba : that should I give 

 orders to the Soudanese or Somali to seize the por- 

 ters as they were running away, the porters were to 

 attack the Soudanese and Somali with clubs, disarm 

 them, bind George and me, and then take us with 

 them to the coast. Had not the desertion been so 



Wakamba V/arriors 



utterly unaccountable, I should not have paid much 

 attention to these words ; but as it was, I was willing 

 to listen to anything which would throw light on the 

 action of the porters. I knew that no Zanzibar! 

 would dare form such a plan as binding a European, 

 without the sanction and prompting of some higher 

 power than his own intelligence. Hamidi and the 

 porters were perfectly well aware that no European — 

 2 H 



