In This Dilemma It Appeared That I Must Inevitably
Lose The Travelling Season, And Come In For The Droughts And
Famines.
The tide, however, turned in my favour a little; for I
obtained, by permission of the Admiralty, a passage
In the
British screw steam-frigate Forte, under orders to convey Admiral
Sir H. Keppel to his command at the Cape; and Sir Charles Wood
most obligingly made a request that I should be forwarded thence
to Zanzibar in one of our slaver-hunting cruisers by the earliest
opportunity.
On the 27th April, Captain Grant and I embarked on board the new
steam-frigate Forte, commanded by Captain E. W. Turnour, at
Portsmouth; and after a long voyage, touching at Madeira and Rio
de Janeiro, we arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on the 4th July.
Here Sir George Grey, the Governor of the colony, who took a warm
and enlightened interest in the cause of the expedition, invited
both Grant and myself to reside at his house. Sir George had
been an old explorer himself - was once wounded by savages in
Australia, much in the same manner as I had been in the Somali
country - and, with a spirit of sympathy, he called me his son,
and said he hoped I would succeed. Then, thinking how best he
could serve me, he induced the Cape Parliament to advance to the
expedition a sum of œ300, for the purpose of buying baggage-
mules; and induced Lieut.-General Wynyard, the Commander-in-
Chief, to detach ten volunteers from the Cape Mounted Rifle Corps
to accompany me.
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