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boxes. The lions seemed at their last gasp. They could 
eat nothing, and had hardly strength enough to lap the 
warm water given to them. 
At three o’clock we loaded up for the last lap. After 
marchinof for an hour, several of the camels fell with the 
heat and exhaustion, including the camel which carried the 
lion cubs, their cage, which was almost in pieces, coming to 
the ground with a crash. Two of my men fainted, and 
just after we had used up our last drop of water, we 
crawled into the coast town of Berbera, in a terrific dust- 
storm, more dead than alive. 
Here I pitched my tent for upwards of four days waiting 
for a steamer to convey me to Aden. I employed my time 
in packing up, selling my camels and general parapher- 
nalia, and paying off my men, four of whom, including my 
headman, I had put on the black book by the assistant 
resident for dishonesty and general bad conduct, so that 
they would never again be allowed to enter the services of 
a white man proceeding into the jungle. A week here in a 
tent and I should have been blind. Dust-storms were of 
daily occurrence, and the little particles of mica which blew 
into my eyes burnt like little sparks of fire when the sun 
shone upon them. 
At length a tiny ship, somewhat bigger than a washing- 
tub, arrived in the harbour. Owing to the strong wind, and 
the strong whisky which the captain got on shore, the boat 
did not start until 6 p.m. the next day. How thankful I 
was to leave the odious place, with its dust-storms ! On 
hauling up the anchor, the captain, who was so drunk that 
he was obliged to hold on to the bridge-rail with both 
hands to prevent himself from falling, shouted, ‘ Starbud — 
hie — steadee ; port— hie — steadee !’ 
‘ Yes, my friend,’ I thought to myself, ‘ you’ve had some- 
thing stronger than port to make you cry “ Hie — steadee !” ’ 
In vulgar parlance he might well have been said to have 
fairly ‘ copped the brewer.’ 
After giving a few more incoherent orders, he utterly 
