504 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



ted that this unfortunate man met his death more 

 than a year before the desertion of the men, and that 

 after this man's death, and before my men deserted, 

 Hamidi had visited the coast, and had seen General 

 Matthews, who had, with apparent willingness, author- 

 ized Hamidi to carry out my orders, and to return to 

 me with a supply of stores and an increase in the per- 

 sonnel of my caravan. Hamidi, at the time of his 

 visit to the coast, certainly could have made no men- 

 tion of any brutality which I had exercised toward the 

 men, else would General Matthews have made some 

 mention of the charge to Mr. Allen, the acting United 

 States Consul. But although it was before the depart- 

 ure of Hamidi for the coast that the porter had been 

 shot, and that some eighteen or twenty of my men had 

 died from dysentery, pulmonary complaints, and other 

 ills incident to life in Africa, and none after the re- 

 turn of Hamidi, General Matthews did not make any 

 complaint to Mr. Allen until after the arrival of the 

 deserters at Zanzibar. 



The total wages due my porters at the time of their 

 desertion was in the neighbourhood of ^looo. This 

 sum, bearing in mind that my men had deserted me 

 and ruined my expedition, and that I was guiltless of 

 having given them any cause for desertion by my 

 treatment of them, I refused emphatically to pay. 



I, being an American citizen, the proper tribunal for 

 the hearing of any complaint, charge, or claim against 

 me on behalf of the Government of Zanzibar or other 

 party, was the Consular Court of the United States ; 

 and General Matthews was notified that I was ready 

 and willing to remain in Zanzibar a sufficient time to 



