212 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



not bringing in, as the custom is, wood and water. 

 Kidogo was reproved for allowing his men to load our 

 asses with their luggage, and the Baloch for their con- 

 tinual complaints about food. The latter had long for- 

 gotten the promises made at Muhama ; they returned 

 at every opportunity to their old tactic, that of obtaining, 

 by all manner of pretexts, as much cloth and beads as 

 possible, ostensibly for provisions, really for trading and 

 buying slaves. At Rumuma they declared that one 

 cloth per diem starved them. Said bin Salim sent 

 them its value, about fifty pounds of beans, and they 

 had abundant rations of beef and mutton, but they 

 could not eat beans. At Inenge they wanted flour, and 

 as the country people sold only grain, they gave them- 

 selves up to despair. I sent for the Jemadar and told 

 him, in presence of the merchants, that, as a fitting 

 opportunity had presented itself, I was willing to weed 

 the party, by giving official dismissal to Khudabakhsh 

 and Belok, to the invalid Ismail and his musical 

 " brother " Shahdad. All four, when consulted, declared 

 that they would die rather than blacken their faces by 

 abandoning the " Haji Abdullah ; " that same evening, 

 however, as I afterwards learned, they wrote, by means 

 of the Arabs, a heartrending complaint to their chief 

 Jemadar at Zanzibar, declaring that he had thrown 

 them into the fire (of affliction), and that their blood 

 was upon his hands. My companion prepared official 

 papers and maps for the Secretary of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, and I again indented upon the Consul 

 and the Collector of Customs for drugs, medical com- 

 forts, and an extra supply of cloth and beads, to the 

 extent of 400 dollars, for which a cheque upon my 

 agents in Bombay was enclosed. The Arabs took leave 

 of us on the 2nd September. I charged them repeat- 



