54. Abdul Kader (tailor), Malabar.
These are the men and boys whom I had chosen to be my companions
on the apparently useless mission of seeking for the lost traveller,
David Livingstone. The goods with which I had burdened them,
consisted of 1,000 doti, or 4,000 yds. of cloth, six bags of beads,
four loads of ammunition, one tent, one bed and clothes, one box of
medicine, sextant and books, two loads of tea, coffee, and sugar,
one load of flour and candles, one load of canned meats, sardines,
and miscellaneous necessaries, and one load of cooking utensils.
The men were all in their places except Bombay. Bombay had gone;
he could not be found. I despatched a man to hunt him up. He
was found weeping in the arms of his Delilah.
"Why did you go away, Bombay, when you knew I intended to go, and
was waiting?"
"Oh, master, I was saying good-bye to my missis."
" Oh, indeed?"
"Yes, master; you no do it, when you go away?
"Silence, sir."
"Oh! all right."
"What is the matter with you, Bombay?"
"Oh, nuffin."
As I saw he was in a humour to pick a quarrel with me before those
Arabs who had congregated outside of my tembe to witness my departure;
and as I was not in a humour to be balked by anything that might turn
up, the consequence was, that I was obliged to thrash Bombay, an
operation which soon cooled his hot choler, but brought down on my
head a loud chorus of remonstrances from my pretended Arab friends -
"Now, master, don't, don't - stop it, master:
