116 
THE KILIMA-NJAR 0 EXREBITIOK. 
the greater part of their wages in advance, and had 
carefully stored up their dollars before quitting the 
coast, so that the threat of depriving them of the 
small remainder of their pay, if they failed to complete 
the contract, had little effect. Mandara, it appears, 
had tried to cajole and frighten the Zanzibaris into 
joining the strike, but these true-hearted Mussulmen 
had informed him that they had but one master and 
that the white man, and him only would they obey— 
an answer for which Mandara ever afterwards bore- 
them a grudge. I therefore in my difficulty turned 
to them for counsel. Kiongwe, the head-man, whose 
experience under Stanley had made him a reliable 
adviser, proposed a daring solution of the quandary, 
namely, that he should proceed forthwith to Mandara’s, 
present him my salaams, and inform him I was now 
ready to start, and waiting only for the promised 
guide. On this errand he w r ent, and found Mandara 
in the best of humours, and apparently grieved to 
hear of the mutiny in my camp, though his one eye 
twinkled as he said so. 
A compromise was arrived at. Kiongwe was in¬ 
formed that I was free to go wherever I chose, but 
that Mandara advised me to select the site which his 
delegates would show me. As I had a hundred loads 
and only thirty men willing to carry them, I had 
better put my goods under his charge, and he would 
take care of them until they could be removed in 
instalments to the selected site. I was rueful when 
Kiongwe returned and communicated the result of his 
interview, because I felt how utterly I had placed 
myself in Mandara’s power. Moreover, I dreaded 
lest the proposed “ taking charge of my goods ” were 
not a pretext for exacting a huge ransom. However, 
