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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Etiquette Demanded That I Should Once More Present My Card To The
European And American Consuls At Zanzibar, And The Word "Farewell"
Was Said To Everybody.
On the fifth day, four dhows were anchored before the American
Consulate.
Into one were lifted the two horses, into two others
the donkeys, into the fourth, the largest, the black escort, and
bulky moneys of the Expedition.
A little before noon we set sail. The American flag, a present to
the Expedition by that kind-hearted lady, Mrs. Webb, was raised
to the mast-head; the Consul, his lady, and exuberant little
children, Mary and Charley, were on the housetop waving the starry
banner, hats, and handkerchiefs, a token of farewell to me and
mine. Happy people, and good! may their course and ours be
prosperous, and may God's blessing rest on us all!
CHAPTER IV. LIFE AT BAGAMOYO.
The isle of Zanzibar with its groves of cocoa-nut, mango, clove,
and cinnamon, and its sentinel islets of Chumbi and French, with
its whitewashed city and jack-fruit odor, with its harbor and ships
that tread the deep, faded slowly from view, and looking westward,
the African continent rose, a similar bank of green verdure to
that which had just receded till it was a mere sinuous line above
the horizon, looming in a northerly direction to the sublimity of
a mountain chain. The distance across from Zanzibar to Bagamoyo
may be about twenty-five miles, yet it took the dull and lazy
dhows ten hours before they dropped anchor on the top of the
coral reef plainly visible a few feet below the surface of the
water, within a hundred yards of the beach.
The newly-enlisted soldiers, fond of noise and excitement,
discharged repeated salvos by way of a salute to the mixed
crowd of Arabs, Banyans, and Wasawahili, who stood on the beach
to receive the Musungu (white man), which they did with a general
stare and a chorus of "Yambo, bana?" (how are you, master?)
In our own land the meeting with a large crowd is rather a tedious
operation, as our independent citizens insist on an interlacing of
fingers, and a vigorous shaking thereof before their pride is
satisfied, and the peaceful manifestation endorsed; but on this
beach, well lined with spectators, a response of "Yambo, bana!"
sufficed, except with one who of all there was acknowledged the
greatest, and who, claiming, like all great men, individual
attention, came forward to exchange another "Yambo!" on his own
behalf, and to shake hands. This personage with a long trailing
turban, was Jemadar Esau, commander of the Zanzibar force of
soldiers, police, or Baluch gendarmes stationed at Bagamoyo.
He had accompanied Speke and Grant a good distance into the
interior, and they had rewarded him liberally. He took upon
himself the responsibility of assisting in the debarkation of
the Expedition, and unworthy as was his appearance, disgraceful
as he was in his filth, I here commend him for his influence
over the rabble to all future East African travellers.
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