SHAYKH KHAMIS BIN USMAN. 



287 



parts of the East, and could converse in fourteen 

 languages.' Turpilucricupidus then became Capt. 

 Owen's interpreter along the Eastern coasts 

 of Arabia and Africa. His voyage in 1835 to 

 London, where Shaykh Khamis bin Usman at 

 once became an ' African Prince,' arose not 

 ' for the purpose of assorting the first cargoes 

 shipped direct to Zanzibar,' but from the stern 

 necessity of temporarily leaving that Island with 

 his head in loco, he having defrauded his master, 

 the Sayyid, to the extent of $18,000. His inge- 

 nuity did not fail him in our country, where his 

 revelations touching the Lake Regions and the 

 unknown interior were delivered and chronicled 

 with a gravity which excites laughter. E;eturn- 

 ing home, ' the Liar,' as he was popularly termed 

 by his countrymen, received the Sayyid's pardon. 

 He then became a kind of lackey and maitre 

 d'hotel, factotum and Eigaro in native houses, the 

 'palace ' included, when Europeans w^ere enter- 

 tained. He has ever since devoted his talents 

 to making himself as wealthy, and his friends as 

 poor, as possible. I had been especially warned 

 against him, on account of the prominent part 

 which he took in spreading reports which led to the 

 murder of M. Maizan, and it is not pleasant to see 

 one's fellow-countrymen so notably 'humbugged.' 



