After Passing, Without Landmarks To Guide Us, By An
Intricate Channel, Through Foaming Surfs, We Arrived At Zanzibar
In The Night, And Found That The Vessel Had Got In Before Us.
Colonel Rigby now gave me a most interesting paper, with a map
attached to it, about the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon.
It
was written by Lieutenant Wilford, from the "Purans" of the
Ancient Hindus. As it exemplifies, to a certain extent, the
supposition I formerly arrived at concerning the Mountains of the
Moon being associated with the country of the Moon, I would fain
draw the attention of the reader of my travels to the volume of
the "Asiatic Researches" in which it was published.[FN#5] It is
remarkable that the Hindus have christened the source of the Nile
Amara, which is the name of a country at the north-east corner of
the Victoria N'yanza. This, I think, shows clearly, that the
ancient Hindus must have had some kind of communication with both
the northern and southern ends of the Victoria N'yanza.
Having gone to work again, I found that Sheikh Said had brought
ten men, four of whom were purchased for one hundred dollars,
which I had to pay; Bombay, Baraka, Frij, and Rahan had brought
twenty-six more, all freed men; while the Sultan Majid, at the
suggestion of Colonel Rigby, gave me thirty-four men more, who
were all raw labourers taken from his gardens. It was my
intention to have taken one hundred of this description of men
throughout the whole journey; but as so many could not be found
in Zanzibar, I still hoped to fill up the complement in
Unyamuezi, the land of the Moon, from the large establishments of
the Arab merchants residing there. The payment of these men's
wages for the first year, as well as the terms of the agreement
made with them, by the kind consent of Colonel Rigby were now
entered in the Consular Office books, as a security to both
parties, and a precaution against disputes on the way. Any one
who saw the grateful avidity with which they took the money, and
the warmth with which they pledged themselves to serve me
faithfully through all dangers and difficulties, would, had he
had no dealings with such men before, have thought that I had a
first-rate set of followers. I lastly gave Sheikh Said a double-
barrelled rifle by Blissett, and distributed fifty carbines among
the seniors of the expedition, with the condition that they would
forfeit them to others more worthy if they did not behave well,
but would retain possession of them for ever if they carried them
through the journey to my satisfaction.
On the 21st, as everything was ready on the island, I sent Sheikh
Said and all the men, along with the Hottentots, mules, and
baggage, off in dhows to Bagamoyo, on the opposite mainland.
Colonel Rigby, with Captain Grant and myself, then called on the
Sultan, to bid him adieu, when he graciously offered me, as a
guard of honour to escort me through Uzaramo, one jemadar and
twenty-five Beluch soldiers.
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