21 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



perceive that the development of resources would benefit 

 all concerned in their exploitation. There were, how- 

 ever, honourable exceptions, amongst whom I am bound 

 to mention M. Berard, agent to Mess. Kabaud, freres, 

 of Marseilles, who by direction of his employers offered 

 me every manner of assistance : and the late M. Sam. 

 Masury, a Salem merchant, to whose gratuitous kind- 

 ness I was indebted for several necessaries when se- 

 parated from civilisation by one half of Africa. They 

 contrasted sharply with the rest of the community: 

 in the case of a certain young gentleman, Lieut. - 

 Colonel Hamerton was, — he informed me, — compelled 

 to threaten a personal chastisement, unless he ceased to 

 fill native ears with his malignant suspicions. 



The weary labour of verifying accounts and of writing 

 receipts duly concluded, I took a melancholy leave 

 of my warm-hearted friend Lieut. -Colonel Hamerton, 

 upon whose form and features death was written in 

 legible characters. He gave me his last advice, to march 

 straight ahead despising " walnut and velvet-slipper 

 men," who afford opinions, and conciliating the Arabs 

 as much as possible. Then he spoke of himself : he 

 looked forward to death with a feeling of delight, the 

 result of his religious convictions ; he expressed a hope 

 that if I remained at Kaole, he might be buried at sea; 

 and he declared himself, in spite of my entreaties, de- 

 termined to remain near the coast until he heard of our 

 safe transit through the lands of the dreaded Wazaramo. 

 This courage was indeed sublime ! Such examples are 

 not often met with amongst men ! 



After this affecting farewell, I took leave of the Ar- 

 temise and landed definitively at Kaole. The Baloch 

 driving the asses were sent off to the first station on 

 the road westwards, headed by my companion, on the 



