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CHAPTER VI. 
Before I enter uponmy journey up the country, I shall endea- 
vour to convey to the reader an idea of the party accompanying 
me, forming probably the largest that has ever left the coast since 
the time of the Portuguese expeditions in the seventeenth century. 
It consisted of four Englishmen, who attended me, Mr. Smith, 
the surgeon, Mr. Pearce, Mr. Coffin, and a servant named Tho- 
mas Ingram ; three Arabs, Hadjee Belal, Hyder, and Said, and 
about one hundred Abyssinian followers, among whom were 
Debib, Hadjee Ha mood, Chelika Havea who had charge of the 
mules and superintendance of the people, the old priest and 
about sixty bearers belonging to the Has ; most of the latter 
being wild desperate young men, who had been accustomed to 
attend him in his various expeditions. The rest consisted of Mr. 
Pearce's and Debib's servants, and a few people of the country 
whom we had hired ; besides three chiefs of the Hazorta tribe ; 
Hummar, Omar and Solimaun, and about adozen of the Nayib's 
rascally camel-drivers. Of this party so formidable in numbers, 
only fourteen were furnished with fire-arms and spears ; the 
others carrying merely slings, knives, and short heavy sticks. I 
had known two of the Hazorta chiefs in my former expedition; 
Hummar, who had stood my friend at the bottom of Taranta, and 
Omar, who had acted as our guide in the journey from Massowa 
