IVORY FEVER. 
541 
in depot at IJjiji, to await my arrival, the Banyamwczi por* 
ters, as usual, brought them honestly to Unyanyembe; tha 
Governor then gave them in chargo to his slave Saloom, 
who stopped the caravan ten days on the way here, while 
he plundered it, and went off to buy ivory for his master, 
in Karajue. It was evident that he would do what ha 
could to prevent evidence of the plundering from going to 
the coast ; and his agent at Ujiji, who knew all this, though 
I did not, after I had paid him in full all he asked to send 
the packet, with about forty letters, returned it back to me 
with the message, “ that he did not know what words these 
letters contained.” Two of my friends protested strongly, 
and he took the packet. When I learned the character of 
the Governor, I lost all hope of any letters going to the 
coast, and took back my deserters, making allowance for 
their early education, and for the fact that they did well 
after Musa fled, up to the time a black Arab, who had long 
been a prisoner with Cazembe, joined us. He encouraged 
them to desert, and harbored them, and when they relented 
on seeing me go off to Bangweolo with only four followers, 
and proposed to follow me, he dissuaded them by the gratui- 
tous assertion that there was war in the country to which 
I was going; and he did many other things which we think 
discreditable, though he got his liberty solely by the influ- 
ence I brought to Cazembe. Yet, judged by the East 
African Moslem standard, as he ought to be, and not by 
ours, he is a very good man ; and as 1 have learned to keep 
my own counsel among them, I never deemed it prudent 
to come to a rupture with the old “ne’er-do-well.” 
Compelled to inactivity here for many months, I offered 
$1000 to some of the traders for the loan of ten of their 
people. This is more than that number of men ever obtain, 
but their imaginations were inflamed, and each expected to 
make a fortune by the ivory now lying rotting in the 
forests, and none would consent to my proposition till his 
goods should be all expended, and no hope of more ivory 
remained. 
