THE OFFICIAL WIGGING. 



247 



my companion with a quantity of valueless, or perhaps 

 misunderstood, information, which I did not deem 

 worth sifting. On the 6th of December, arrived at 

 our old ground in the Ugogi Dhun, we were greeted 

 by a freshly- arrived caravan, commanded by Jumah 

 bin Mbwana and his two brothers, half-caste Hindi or 

 Indian Moslems, from Mombasah. 



The Hindis, after receiving and returning news with 

 much solemnity, presently drew forth a packet of letters 

 and papers, which as usual promised trouble. This time, 

 however, the post was to produce the second manner 

 of annoyance — official "wigging," — the first being 

 intelligence of private misfortune, Imprimis, came a 

 note from Captain Rigby, the newly-appointed successor 

 to Lieut. -Col. Hamerton at Zanzibar, and that name was 

 not nice in the nostrils of men. Secondly, the following 

 pleasant announcement. I give the whole letter : 



Dear Burton, — Go ahead! Yogel and Macguire 

 dead — murdered. Write often to Yours truly, N. S. 



And thirdly came the inevitable official wig. 



Convinced, by sundry conversations with Arabs and 

 others at Suez and Aden, during my last overland journey 

 to India, and by the details supplied to me by a naval officer 

 who was thoroughly conversant with the Red Sea, that, 

 in consequence of the weakness and insufficiency of the 

 squadron then employed, slavery still flourished, and that 

 the numerous British subjects and proteges were inade- 

 quately protected, I had dared, after arrival at Zanzibar, 

 privately to address on the 15th of December, 1856, a 

 letter upon the subject to the secretary of the Royal 

 Geographical Society. It contained an " Account of 

 Political Affairs in the Red Sea," — to quote the words 

 of the paper, and expressed a hope that it might be 

 " deemed worthy to be transmitted to the Court of 



R 4 



