10 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



caste Arab of Zanzibar, who, sorely against his will, was 

 ordered by the prince to act as Ras Kafilah, or caravan- 

 guide, had, after ceaseless and fruitless prayers for delay, 

 preceded us about a fortnight, for the purpose of collect- 

 ing porters. The timid little man, whose nerves were 

 shaken to weeping-point by the terrors of the way, and 

 by the fancy that, thus cooperating with the exploration, 

 he was incurring the hatred of his fellows, had " taken 

 the shilling," in the shape of 500 dollars, advanced 

 from public funds by the consul, with a promise of an 

 ample reward in hard coin, and a gold watch, "si se 

 bene gesserit:" at the same time Lieut.-Colonel Hamer- 

 ton had warned me against trusting to a half-caste. 

 Accompanied by a Cutch Banyan of the Bhattia caste, 

 by name Ramji — of whom more anon — he had crossed 

 over, on the 1st of June, to the main-land, and had hired 

 a gang of porters, who, however, hearing that their 

 employer was a Muzungu, a " white man," at once 

 dispersed, forgetting to return their hire. About one 

 hundred and seventy men were required ; only thirty- 

 six were procurable. The large amount of carriage was 

 necessitated by the bulky and ponderous nature of 

 African s'pecie, cotton cloth, brass-wire, and beads, of 

 which a total of seventy loads was expended in one 

 year and nine months. Moreover, under the impression 

 that " vert and venison " abounded in the interior, I 

 had provided ammunition for two years, — ten thousand 

 copper-caps of sizes, forty boxes, each restricted, for 

 convenience of porterage, to forty pounds, and contain- 

 ing ball, grape, and shot, six fire-proof magazines, and 

 two small barrels of fine powder, weighing in total fifty 

 pounds, together with four ten-pound kegs of a coarser 

 kind for the escort, — in all, two hundred rounds for 

 each individual of the party. This supply was deemed 



