SEEDY BOMBAY. 



237 



its bridle. Like the Eastern Africans generally, he 

 lacked the principle of immediate action; if beckoned 

 to for a gun in the field he would probably first delay 

 to look round, then retire, and lastly advance. He had 

 a curious inverted way of doing all that he did. The 

 water-bottle was ever carried on the march either un- 

 corked or inverted ; his waistcoat was generally wound 

 round his neck, and it appeared fated not to be properly 

 buttoned ; whilst he walked bareheaded in the sun, his 

 Fez adorned the tufty poll of some comrade ; and at the 

 halt he toiled like a charwoman to raise our tents and 

 to prepare them for habitation, whilst his slave, the 

 large lazy Maktubu, a boy -giant from the mountains of 

 Urundi, sat or dozed under the cool shade. Yet with 

 all his faults and failures Bombay, for his unwearied 

 activity, and especially from his undeviating honesty, 

 — there was no man, save our "Negro Rectitude," in 

 the whole camp who had not proved his claim to the 

 title tri literal — was truly valuable. Said bin Salim 

 had long forfeited my confidence by his carelessness and 

 extravagance ; and the disappearance of the outfit com- 

 mitted to him at Ujiji, in favour, as I afterwards learned, 

 of an Arab merchant-friend, rendered him unfit for the 

 responsibilities of stewardship. 



Having summoned Said bin Salim, I told him with all 

 gentleness, in order to spare his "shame"- — the Persian 

 proverb says, Fell not the tree which thou hast planted 

 — that being now wiser in Eastern African travel than 

 before, I intended to relieve him of his troublesome 

 duties. He heard this announcement with the wriest of 

 faces ; and his perturbation was not diminished when 

 informed that the future distribution of cloth should be 

 wholly in the hands of Bombay, checked by my com- 

 panion's superintendence. The loads were accordingly 



