OUR SEEDEES STRIKE FOR DOUBLE PAY. 121 
the eight or ten other petty chiefs whose country we 
had to pass through afterwards, were not a whit better 
than the Watuta, and the wonder is they did not take 
everything from us. It was only because they feared 
being shot or bewitched, or come down upon by their 
neighbouring chiefs, that they desisted. When one 
is known to possess wealth, obtained by tax or by 
plunder, jealousy and quarrels are the certain result. 
We no sooner heard the vile sound of the war-drum 
to collect the natives, and intimidate our party into 
the settlement of the tax, than our porters would 
desert; and when the drums beat a "receipt" for all 
demands, and we were free to move out of their 
clutches, our Wezee porters would get up a row with 
us, and demand more cloth, thus causing us to suffer 
as much annoyance from friend as from foe ; and often 
they would run away in a body as soon as they got 
what they wanted. Nothing we could devise seemed 
to succeed, till their bows and arrows were seized, and 
they had got so far on the journey that going back 
through these boisterous races to their homes without 
arms would have been as bad as death to them. One 
trouble over, we had others : our Seedees, who had 
been engaged and paid at the British Consulate of 
Zanzibar to accompany us, struck for double pay and 
increased allowance for rations. Their complaints 
were calmly listened to; and when it was told that 
they might leave our service but lay down their arms, 
they surrendered them, but thought better of it the 
following morning, and only three of them deserted. 
These constant drains upon our resources had one 
good effect — they lightened our baggage; and after 
the enormous tax levied by the sultan and under- 
