This little job occupied me
five days.
I also packed them up, for the pagazis. Each load was carefully
weighed, and none exceeded 68 lbs. in weight. John Shaw excelled
himself in the workmanship displayed on the canvas boats; when
finished, they fitted their frames admirably. The canvas - six
bolts of English hemp, No. 3 - was procured from Ludha Damji,
who furnished it from the Sultan's storeroom.
An insuperable obstacle to rapid transit in Africa is the want of
carriers, and as speed was the main object of the Expedition under
my command, my duty was to lessen this difficulty as much as
possible. My carriers could only be engaged after arriving at
Bagamoyo, on the mainland. I had over twenty good donkeys ready,
and I thought a cart adapted for the footpaths of Africa might
prove an advantage. Accordingly I had a cart constructed,
eighteen inches wide and five feet long, supplied with two
fore-wheels of a light American wagon, more for the purpose of
conveying the narrow ammunition-boxes. I estimated that if a
donkey could carry to Unyanyembe a load of four frasilahs,
or 140 lbs., he ought to be able to draw eight frasilahs on such
a cart, which would be equal to the carrying capacity of four
stout pagazis or carriers. Events will prove, how my theories
were borne out by practice.
When my purchases were completed, and I beheld them piled up, tier
after tier, row upon row, here a mass of cooking-utensils, there
bundles of rope, tents, saddles, a pile of portmanteaus and boxes,
containing every imaginable thing, I confess I was rather abashed
at my own temerity. Here were at least six tons of material!
"How will it ever be possible," I thought, "to move all this inert
mass across the wilderness stretching between the sea, and the
great lakes of Africa? Bah, cast all doubts away, man, and have
at them! `Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,' without
borrowing from the morrow."
The traveller must needs make his way into the African interior
after a fashion very different from that to which he has been
accustomed in other countries. He requires to take with him just
what a ship must have when about to sail on a long voyage. He
must have his slop chest, his little store of canned dainties,
and his medicines, besides which, he must have enough guns, powder,
and ball to be able to make a series of good fights if necessary.
He must have men to convey these miscellaneous articles; and as a
man's maximum load does not exceed 70 lbs., to convey 11,000 lbs.
requires nearly 160 men.
Europe and the Orient, even Arabia and Turkestan, have royal ways
of travelling compared to Africa. Specie is received in all those
countries, by which a traveller may carry his means about with
him on his own person.
