36 



SAYYID MAJID. 



a few boxes to be packed, and to board the first 

 home-returning ship. In this state the invalid 

 requires the assistance of a friend, of a man who 

 will order him away, and who will, if he refuses, 

 carry him off by main force. 



Our small mountain of luggage was soon 

 housed, and we addressed ourselves seriously to 

 the difficulties of our position. That night's 

 rest was not sweet to us. I became as the man 

 of whom it was written — 



' So coy a dame is Sleep to him, 

 That all the weary courtship of his thoughts 

 Can't win her to his bed.' 



After the disaster in Somali-land, I was pledged, 

 at all risks and under all circumstances, to suc- 

 ceed ; and now St Julian, host and patron of tra- 

 vellers, had begun to show me the rough side of 

 his temper. The Consul was evidently unfit for 

 the least exertion. He had in his 6 godowns ' 

 dozens of chests and cases which he had not the 

 energy to open. II. H. Sayyid Said had left 

 affairs in a most unsatisfactory state. His eldest 

 son, the now murdered Sayyid Suwayni, heir to 

 Maskat, and famous as an anglophobe, had threat- 

 ened to attack Zanzibar; a menace which, as will 

 afterwards appear, he attempted to carry out. 

 The cadet Sayyid Majid, installed by his father 



