THIRD DANGEROUS STATION. 



73 



party. A halt was called by the trembling Said, who 

 at such conjunctures would cling like a woman to my 

 companion or to me. During the few minutes' delay the 

 " sons of Kamji," who were as pale as blacks could be, 

 allowed their asses to bump off half a dozen loads. Pre- 

 sently Hembe, accompanied by a small guard, came for- 

 ward, and after a few words with Wazira and Said, the 

 donkey from which I had not dismounted was hurried 

 forward by the Baloch. Hembe followed us with a 

 stronger escort to Madege Madogo, the next station. 

 Illness served me as an excuse for not receiving him: 

 he obtained, however, from Said a letter to the headmen 

 of the coast, bespeaking their good offices for certain of 

 his slaves sent down to buy gunpowder. 



An account of the melancholy event which cut short 

 at Dege la Mhora the career of the first European that 

 ever penetrated beyond this portion of the coast may 

 here be inserted. 



M. Maizan, an enseigne de vaisseau, and a pupil of 

 the Polytechnic School, after a cruise in the seas off 

 Eastern Africa, conceived, about the end of 1843, the 

 project of exploring the lakes of the interior, and in 

 1844 his plans were approved of by his government. 

 Arrived at Bourbon, he was provided with a passage to. 

 Zanzibar, in company with M. Broquant, the Consul de 

 France, newly appointed after the French Commercial 

 Treaty of the 21st Nov. 1844, on board the corvette Le 

 Berceau, Capitaine, afterwards Vice- Admiral, Roniain 

 Desfosses, commanding. At the age of twenty-six M. 

 Maizan had amply qualified himself by study for travel, 

 and he was well provided with outfit and instruments. 

 His " kit," however, was of a nature calculated to excite 

 savage cupidity, as was proved by the fact that his 

 murderer converted the gilt knob of a tent-pole into a 



