Young King followed me to the
express train bound for Marseilles, and at the station we parted:
he to go and read the newspapers at Bowles' Reading-room - I to
Central Africa and - who knows?
There is no need to recapitulate what I did before going to Central
Africa.
I went up the Nile and saw Mr. Higginbotham, chief engineer in
Baker's Expedition, at Philae, and was the means of preventing
a duel between him and a mad young Frenchman, who wanted to fight
Mr. Higginbotham with pistols, because that gentleman resented
the idea of being taken for an Egyptian, through wearing a fez cap.
I had a talk with Capt. Warren at Jerusalem, and descended one
of the pits with a sergeant of engineers to see the marks of
the Tyrian workmen on the foundation-stones of the Temple of Solomon.
I visited the mosques of Stamboul with the Minister Resident of
the United States, and the American Consul-General. I travelled
over the Crimean battle-grounds with Kinglake's glorious books
for reference in my hand. I dined with the widow of General
Liprandi at Odessa. I saw the Arabian traveller Palgrave at
Trebizond, and Baron Nicolay, the Civil Governor of the Caucasus,
at Tiflis. I lived with the Russian Ambassador while at Teheran,
and wherever I went through Persia I received the most hospitable
welcome from the gentlemen of the Indo-European Telegraph Company;
and following the examples of many illustrious men, I wrote my
name upon one of the Persepolitan monuments. In the month of
August, 1870, I arrived in India.
On the 12th of October I sailed on the barque 'Polly' from
Bombay to Mauritius. As the 'Polly' was a slow sailer, the
passage lasted thirty-seven days. On board this barque was
a William Lawrence Farquhar - hailing from Leith, Scotland -
in the capacity of first-mate. He was an excellent navigator,
and thinking he might be useful to me, I employed him; his pay
to begin from the date we should leave Zanzibar for Bagamoyo.
As there was no opportunity of getting, to Zanzibar direct,
I took ship to Seychelles. Three or four days after arriving
at Mahe, one of the Seychelles group, I was fortunate enough
to get a passage for myself, William Lawrence Farquhar, and
an Arab boy from Jerusalem, who was to act as interpreter -
on board an American whaling vessel, bound for Zanzibar;
at which port we arrived on the 6th of January, 1871.
I have skimmed over my travels thus far, because these do not
concern the reader. They led over many lands, but this book is
only a narrative of my search after Livingstone, the great
African traveller. It is an Icarian flight of journalism, I
confess; some even have called it Quixotic; but this is a word I
can now refute, as will be seen before the reader arrives at the
"Finis."
I have used the word "soldiers" in this book. The armed escort a
traveller engages to accompany him into East Africa is composed of
free black men, natives of Zanzibar, or freed slaves from the
interior, who call themselves "askari," an Indian name which,
translated, means "soldiers." They are armed and equipped like
soldiers, though they engage themselves also as servants; but it
would be more pretentious in me to call them servants, than to use
the word "soldiers;" and as I have been more in the habit of
calling them soldiers than "my watuma" - servants - this habit has
proved too much to be overcome. I have therefore allowed the word
"soldiers " to appear, accompanied, however, with this apology.
But it must be remembered that I am writing a narrative of my own
adventures and travels, and that until I meet Livingstone, I
presume the greatest interest is attached to myself, my marches,
my troubles, my thoughts, and my impressions. Yet though I may
sometimes write, "my expedition," or "my caravan," it by no
means follows that I arrogate to myself this right. For it must
be distinctly understood that it is the "`New York Herald'
Expedition," and that I am only charged with its command by
Mr. James Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the `New York Herald,'
as a salaried employ of that gentleman.
One thing more; I have adopted the narrative form of relating
the story of the search, on account of the greater interest it
appears to possess over the diary form, and I think that in this
manner I avoid the great fault of repetition for which some
travellers have been severely criticised.
CHAPTER II. ZANZIBAR.
On the morning of the 6th January, 1871, we were sailing through
the channel that separates the fruitful island of Zanzibar from
Africa. The high lands of the continent loomed like a lengthening
shadow in the grey of dawn. The island lay on our left, distant
but a mile, coming out of its shroud of foggy folds bit by bit as
the day advanced, until it finally rose clearly into view, as
fair in appearance as the fairest of the gems of creation. It
appeared low, but not flat; there were gentle elevations cropping
hither and yon above the languid but graceful tops of the
cocoa-trees that lined the margin of the island, and there were
depressions visible at agreeable intervals, to indicate where a
cool gloom might be found by those who sought relief from a hot
sun. With the exception of the thin line of sand, over which the
sap-green water rolled itself with a constant murmur and moan, the
island seemed buried under one deep stratum of verdure.
The noble bosom of the strait bore several dhows speeding in and
out of the bay of Zanzibar with bellying sails.
