26 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA,, 



ally of the English nation, had for many years repeat- 

 edly made the most public-spirited offers to his friend 

 Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton. He was more than once 

 upon the point of applying for officers selected to map 

 the caravan routes of Eastern Africa, and he professed 

 himself willing to assist them with men, money, and the 

 weight of his widely extended influence. This excellent 

 prince had died forty days before the Expedition arrived 

 at Zanzibar. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton, also, whose ex- 

 traordinary personal qualities enabled him to perform 

 anything but impossibilities amongst the Arabs, was 

 compelled by rapidly failing health, during my stay at 

 Zanzibar, to lead a recluse life, which favoured the plans 

 of my opponents. Finally, as Indian experience taught 

 me, I was entering the unknown land at the fatal season, 

 when the shrinking of the waters after the wet mon- 

 soon would render it a hotbed of malaria. 



The hurry of departure, also, had caused a necessary 

 neglect of certain small precautions, which, taken in 

 time, save much after trouble. I should have shunned 

 to have laid down limits of space and time for the Ex- 

 pedition, whereas my friend and adviser had specified 

 the " Sea of Ujiji." I intended to have drawn out 

 every agreement in an official form, registered at the 

 Consulate, and specifying all particulars concerning ra- 

 tions and presents for the escort, their ammunition, and 

 their right of sporting — that is to say, of scaring the 

 game before it could be shot — their reward for services, 

 and their punishments for ill conduct. Lieut.-Colonel 

 Hamerton's state of health, however, rendered him to- 

 tally unfit for the excitement of business ; and, without 

 his assistance, a good result was not to be expected from 

 measures so unfamiliar, and therefore so unpalatable, to 

 the people whom they most concerned. 



