LADIIA DAMHA. 



11 



necessary on account of the immense loss to which am- 

 munition is subjected by theft and weather in these lands. 



On the second day after anchoring off Wale Point, a 

 native boat brought on board the Artemise Ladha Damha, 

 the collector of customs at Zanzibar, who, in compli- 

 ment to Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, of old his friend and 

 patron, had torn himself from his beloved occupations 

 to push the departure of the Expedition. Ladha, hear- 

 ing that the Arab merchants had hastened to secure 

 their gangs before corrupted by the more liberal offers 

 of the " white men," — " Pagazi," or porters, being at 

 that time scarce, because the caravans from the interior 

 had not yet reached the coast, — proposed to send forward 

 the thirty-six fellows hired by Said bin Salim, with orders 

 to await the arrival of their employer at Zungomero, in 

 the land of K'hutu, a point situated beyond the plun- 

 dering maritime tribes. These men carried goods to the 

 value of 654 dollars German crowns (each 4 s. 2d.), and 

 they received for hire 124 dollars ; rations, that is 

 to say, 1*50 lbs. of grain per diem, not included : they 

 preferred to travel with the escort of two slave-mus- 

 keteers rather than to incur the fancied danger of accom- 

 panying a " Muzungu," though followed by a well-armed 

 party. For the personal baggage and the outfit neces- 

 sary for crossing the maritime region, which reached by 

 waste the figure of 295 dollars, asses were proposed by 

 Ladha Damha: Zanzibar and the mainland harbours were 

 ransacked, and in a short time thirty animals, good, bad, 

 and indifferent, were fitted for the roads with large can- 

 vas bags and vile Arab packsaddles, composed of damaged 

 gunny-bags stuffed with straw. It was necessary to 

 leave behind, till a full gang of porters could be engaged, 

 the greater part of the ammunition, the iron boat which 

 had proved so useful on the coasting voyage to Mom- 



