Snap your fingers at the fever. I will
guarantee the fever won't kill you. I have medicine enough for a
regiment here!"
His eyes lit up a little, but the light that shone in them shortly
faded, and died. I was quite disheartened. I made some strong
punch, to put fire in his veins, that I might see life in him.
I put sugar, and eggs, and seasoned it with lemon and spice.
"Drink, Shaw," said I, "and forget your infirmities. You are not
sick, dear fellow; it is only ennui you are feeling. Look at
Selim there. Now, I will bet any amount, that he will not die;
that I will carry him home safe to his friends! I will carry you
home also, if you will, let me!"
September 1st: - According to Thani bin Abdullah whom I visited
to-day, at his tembe in Maroro, Mirambo lost two hundred men in
the attack upon Tabora, while the Arabs' losses were, five Arabs,
thirteen freemen and eight slaves, besides three tembes, and over
one hundred small huts burned, two hundred and eighty ivory
tusks, and sixty cows and bullocks captured.
September 3rd. - Received a packet of letters and newspapers from
Capt. Webb, at Zanzibar. What a good thing it is that one's
friends, even in far America, think of the absent one in Africa!
They tell me, that no one dreams of my being in Africa yet!
I applied to Sheikh bin Nasib to-day to permit Livingstone's
caravan to go under my charge to Ujiji, but he would not listen
to it. He says he feels certain I am going to my death.
September 4th. - Shaw is quite well to-day, he says. Selim is down
with the fever. My force is gradually increasing, though some of
my old soldiers are falling off. Umgareza is blind; Baruti has
the small-pox very badly; Sadala has the intermittent.
September 5th. - Baruti died this morning. He was one of my best
soldiers; and was one of those men who accompanied Speke to Egypt.
Baruti is number seven of those who have died since leaving
Zanzibar.
To-day my ears have been poisoned with the reports of the Arabs,
about the state of the country I am about to travel through.
"The roads are bad; they are all stopped; the Ruga-Ruga are out
in the forests; the Wakonongo are coming from the south to help
Mirambo; the Washensi are at war, one tribe against another."
My men are getting dispirited, they have imbibed the fears of the
Arabs and the Wanyamwezi. Bombay begins to feel that I had better
go back to the coast, and try again some other time.
We buried Baruti under the shade of the banyan-tree, a few yards
west of my tembe.
