276 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



bered warning me that such was the case five days ago. 

 I must either delay till an escort could be summoned 

 from the coast, or — I must fee a chief to precede me 

 and to reason with the enemy. It was in vain to storm, 

 I feared that real obstacles might be placed by the timid 

 and wily little man in our way, and I consented most 

 unwillingly to pay two coloured cloths, and one ditto of 

 blue-cotton, as hire to guard that appeared in the 

 shape of four clothless varlets, that left us after the first 

 quarter of an hour. The Baloch, headed by the Jemadar, 

 knowing that all was safe, distinguished themselves on 

 that night, for the first time in eighteen months, by 

 uttering the shouts which prove that the Oriental sol- 

 dier is doing "Zam," i.e. is on the qui vive. When re- 

 quested not to make so much noise they grumbled that 

 it was for our sake, not for theirs. 



On the 30th January our natives of Zanzibar 

 screamed with delight at the sight of the mango- tree, 

 and pointed out to one another, as they appeared in 

 succession, the old familiar fruits, jacks and pine-apples, 

 limes and cocoes. On the 2nd February we greeted, 

 with doffed caps and with three times three and one 

 more, as Britons will do on such occasions, the kindly 

 smiling face of our father Neptune as he lay basking in 

 the sunbeams between earth and air. Finally, the 3rd 

 February 1859 saw us winding through the poles deco- 

 rated with skulls — they now grin in the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, London — a negro Temple-bar which pointed 

 out the way into the little maritime village of Konduchi. 



Our entrance was attended with the usual ceremony, 

 now familiar to the reader : the warmen danced, shot, 

 and shouted, a rabble of adults, youths, and boys crowded 

 upon us, the fair sex lulliloo'd with vigour, and a 

 general procession conducted their strangers to the hut 



