How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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Having bartered drafts on Mr. James Gordon Bennett to the amount
of several thousand dollars for cloth, beads, wire, donkeys, and
a thousand necessaries, having advanced pay to the white men, and
black escort of the Expedition, having fretted Capt.
Webb and his
family more than enough with the din of preparation, and filled
his house with my goods, there was nothing further to do but to
leave my formal adieus with the Europeans, and thank the Sultan
and those gentlemen who had assisted me, before embarking for
Bagamoyo.
The day before my departure from Zanzibar the American Consul,
having just habited himself in his black coat, and taking with him
an extra black hat, in order to be in state apparel, proceeded with
me to the Sultan's palace. The prince had been generous to me;
he had presented me with an Arab horse, had furnished me with
letters of introduction to his agents, his chief men, and
representatives in the interior, and in many other ways had
shown himself well disposed towards me.
The palace is a large, roomy, lofty, square house close to the
fort, built of coral, and plastered thickly with lime mortar.
In appearance it is half Arabic and half Italian. The shutters
are Venetian blinds painted a vivid green, and presenting a
striking contrast to the whitewashed walls. Before the great,
lofty, wide door were ranged in two crescents several Baluch and
Persian mercenaries, armed with curved swords and targes of
rhinoceros hide. Their dress consisted of a muddy-white cotton
shirt, reaching to the ancles, girdled with a leather belt thickly
studded with silver bosses.
As we came in sight a signal was passed to some person inside the
entrance. When within twenty yards of the door, the Sultan, who
was standing waiting, came down the steps, and, passing through the
ranks, advanced toward us, with his right hand stretched out, and a
genial smile of welcome on his face. On our side we raised our
hats, and shook hands with him, after which, doing according as he
bade us, we passed forward, and arrived on the highest step near
the entrance door. He pointed forward; we bowed and arrived at
the foot of an unpainted and narrow staircase to turn once more to
the Sultan. The Consul, I perceived, was ascending sideways, a
mode of progression which I saw was intended for a compromise with
decency and dignity. At the top of the stairs we waited, with
our faces towards the up-coming Prince. Again we were waved
magnanimously forward, for before us was the reception-hall and
throne-room. I noticed, as I marched forward to the furthest end,
that the room was high, and painted in the Arabic style, that the
carpet was thick and of Persian fabric, that the furniture consisted
of a dozen gilt chairs and a chandelier,
We were seated; Ludha Damji, the Banyan collector of customs, a
venerable-looking old man, with a shrewd intelligent face, sat on
the right of the Sultan; next to him was the great Mohammedan
merchant Tarya Topan who had come to be present at the interview,
not only because he was one of the councillors of His Highness,
but because he also took a lively interest in this American
Expedition.
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