After administering a glass of port
wine to him in a bowlful of sago gruel, we both fell asleep.
We arrived early the following morning at Mfuto, the rendezvous
of the Arab army. A halt was ordered the next day, in order to
make ourselves strong by eating the beeves, which we freely
slaughtered.
The personnel of our army was as follows:
Sheikh Sayd bin Salim . . . . . . 25 half caste
" Khamis bin Abdullah . . . . 250 slaves
" Thani bin Abdullah . . . . 80 "
" Mussoud bin Abdullah . . . . 75 "
" Abdullah bin Mussoud . . . . 80 "
" Ali bin Sayd bin Nasib . . . 250 "
" Nasir bin Mussoud . . . . . 50 "
" Hamed Kimiami . . . . . . 70 "
" Hamdam . . . . . . . . 30 "
" Sayd bin Habib . . . . . . 50 "
" Salim bin Sayf . . . . . 100 "
" Sunguru . . . . . . . . 25 "
" Sarboko . . . . . . . . 25 "
" Soud bin Sayd bin Majid . . . 50 "
" Mohammed bin Mussoud . . . . 30 "
" Sayd bin Hamed . . . . . . 90 "
" The 'Herald' Expedition . . . 50 soldiers
" Mkasiwa's Wanyamwezi . . . 800 "
" Half-castes and Wangwana . . 125 "
" Independent chiefs and their
followers . . . . . . . 300 "
These made a total of 2,255, according to numbers given me by
Thani bin Abdullah, and corroborated by a Baluch in the pay of
Sheikh bin Nasib. Of these men 1,500 were armed with guns -
flint-lock muskets, German and French double-barrels, some
English Enfields, and American Springfields - besides these muskets,
they were mostly armed with spears and long knives for the
purpose of decapitating, and inflicting vengeful gashes in
the dead bodies.
