Before Us Now Lay A Wilderness Of Five Marches' Duration, As The
Few Villages That Once Lined It Had All Been Depopulated By The
Sorombo People And The Watuta.
We therefore had to lay in
rations for those days, and as no men could be found who would
take service to Karague, we filled up our complement with men at
exorbitant wages to carry our things on to Usui.
At this place,
to our intense joy, three of Sheikh Said's boys came to us with a
letter from Rigby; but, on opening it, our spirits at once fell
far below zero, for it only informed us that he had sent us all
kinds of nice things, and letters from home, which were packed up
in boxes, and despatched from the coast on the 30th October 1860.
The boys then told me that a merchant, nickname Msopora, had left
the boxes in Ugogo, in charge of some of those Arabs who were
detained there, whilst he went rapidly round by the south,
following up the Ruaha river to Usanga and Usenga, whence he
struck across to Kaze. Sheikh Said, they said, sent his
particular respects to me; he had heard of Grant's disasters with
great alarm. If he could be of service, he would readily come to
me; but he had dreamed three times that he saw me marching into
Cairo, which, as three times were lucky, he was sure would prove
good, and he begged I would still keep my nose well to the front,
and push boldly on.
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