DAY AT UJIJI. 



87 



fied, they started up and rushed away, declaring that 

 they washed their hands of the business. At length, 

 Lurinda, the neighbouring headman, was persuaded to 

 supply a Nakhoda and a crew of twenty men. An 

 Arab pays on these occasions, besides rations, ten per 

 cent, upon merchandise ; the white men were compelled 

 to give four coil-bracelets and eight cloths for the 

 canoe; besides which, the crew received, as hire, six 

 coil-bracelets, and to each individual provisions for 

 eight days, and twenty khete of large blue-glass beads, 

 and small blue-porcelains were issued. After many 

 delays, my companion set out on the 2nd of March, in 

 the vilest weather, and spent the first stormy day near the 

 embouchure of the Ruche Kiver, within cannon shot of 

 Kawele. This halt gave our persecutors time to change 

 their minds once more, and again to forbid the journey. 

 I was compelled to purchase their permission by send- 

 ing to Kannena an equivalent of what had been paid for 

 the canoe to Lurinda, viz. four coil-bracelets and eight 

 cloths. Two days afterwards my companion, supplied 

 with an ample outfit, and accompanied by two Baloch 

 and his men — Gaetano and Bombay — crossed the 

 bay of Ukaranga, and made his final departure for the 

 islands. 



During my twenty-seven days of solitude the time 

 sped quickly ; it was chiefly spent in eating and drink- 

 ing, smoking and dozing. Awaking at 2 or 3 a.m., I 

 lay anxiously expecting the grey light creeping through 

 the door-chinks and making darkness visible ; the glad 

 tidings of its approach were announced by the cawing 

 of the crows and the crowing of the village cocks. 

 When the golden rays began to stream over the red 

 earth, the torpid Valentine was called up ; he brought 

 with him a mess of Suji, or rice-flour boiled in water, 



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