Moreover, I Knew That The Negroes Who Would
Have To Go With Me, As Long As They Believed I Had
Property in
advance, would work up to it willingly, as they would be the
gainers by doing so; whilst, with
Nothing before them, they would
be always endeavouring to thwart my advance, to save them from a
trouble which their natural laziness would prompt them to escape
from.
This beautiful project, I am sorry to say, was doomed from the
first; for I did not get the œ2500 grant of money or appointment
to the command until fully nine months had elapsed, when I wrote
to Colonel Rigby, our Consul at Zanzibar, to send on the first
instalment of property towards the interior.
As time then advanced, the Indian branch of the Government very
graciously gave me fifty artillery carbines, with belts and
sword-bayonets attached, and 20,000 rounds of ball ammunition.
They lent me as many surveying instruments as I wanted; and,
through Sir George Clerk, put at my disposal some rich presents,
in gold watches, for the chief Arabs who had so generously
assisted us in the last expedition. Captain Grant, hearing that
I was bound on this journey, being an old friend and brother
sportsman in India, asked me to take him with me, and his
appointment was settled by Colonel Sykes, then chairman of a
committee of the Royal Geographical Society, who said it would
only be "a matter of charity" to allow me a companion.
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