428 
RICHARN ARRIVES . 
[chap. XV. 
converse with the people, and to endeavour through 
them to get into communication with the MVas, as¬ 
suring them that I should remain neutral unless 
attacked, but if their intentions were hostile I was 
quite ready to fight. At the same time I instructed 
her to explain that I should be sorry to fire at the 
servants of M’tese, as he had behaved well to my friends 
Speke and Grant, but that the best way to avoid a 
collision would be for the MVas to keep at a distance 
from my camp. Bacheeta told me that this assurance 
would be certain to reach the chief of the MVas, as 
many of the natives of Chopi were in league with them 
against Kamrasi. 
In the afternoon of that day I strolled outside the 
village with some of my men to accompany the party 
to the drinking place from which we procured our 
water;—it was about a quarter of a mile from the 
camp, and it was considered dangerous for any one to 
venture so far without the protection of an armed 
party. 
We had just returned, and were standing in the 
cool of the evening on the lawn opposite the entrance 
of the camp, when one of my men came rushing to¬ 
wards us shouting, “ Richarn ! Bicharn’s come back ! ” 
In another moment I saw with extreme delight the jet 
black Eicharn whom I had mourned as lost, quietly 
marching towards us. The meeting was almost pathetic. 
I took him warmly by the hand and gave him a few 
words of welcome, but my vakeel, who had never 
cared for him before, threw himself upon his neck and 
burst out crying like a child. How long this sobbing 
would have continued I know not, as several of my 
Arabs caught the infection and began to be lachrymose, 
while Eicharn, embraced on all sides, stood the ordeal 
most stoically, looking extremely bewildered, but totally 
unconscious of the cause of so much weeping. To 
change the current of feeling, I told the boy Saat to 
fetch a large gourd-shell of merissa (native beer), of 
which I had received a good supply from Kalloe. This 
