COLONEL OUTRAM. 



381 



consolatory, and I could not help wishing that 

 Colonel Outram had been able to remember his 

 own feelings of 20 years back. Thus far, how- 

 ever, he was dans son droit, he held it his duty 

 to prevent men from destroying themselves, and 

 he should have veto'd the whole affair. 



Presently, however, upon my assuming the 

 fullest responsibility and giving a written bond 

 for our blood, the Political Resident allowed 

 me to enrol Lieut. Speke as a member of the 

 Expedition, and thus to save his furlough by 

 putting him on full service. Colonel Outram 

 would also have gratified his own generosity, and 

 shifted all onus from his conscience, by making 

 me alone answerable for the safety of a Madras 

 officer who had left India expressly to join us. 

 I had, however, now done enough : common 

 report at Aden declared the thing to be im- 

 possible, and the unfortunate traveller returned 

 unsuccessful. 



Lieut. Speke was uncommonly hard to man- 

 age : he owned himself to be a ' Masti Bengali ' 

 (bumptious Bengal-man), and having been for 

 years his own master, he had a way as well as 

 a will of his own. To a peculiarly quiet and 

 modest aspect — aided by blue eyes and blonde 

 hair — to a gentleness of demeanour, and an 



