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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The Number Of Packages Was Thirty-Five, Which Required
As Many Men To Convey Them To Unyanyembe.
The men chosen to escort
this caravan were composed of Johannese and Wahiyow, seven in number.
Out of the seven, four were slaves.
They lived in clover here -
thoughtless of the errand they had been sent upon, and careless of
the consequences. What these men were doing at Bagamoyo all this
time I never could conceive, except indulging their own vicious
propensities. It would be nonsense to say there were no pagazis;
because I know there were at least fifteen caravans which had
started for the interior since the Ramadan (December 15th, 1870).
Yet Livingstone's caravan had arrived at this little town of Bagamoyo
November 2nd, and here it had been lying until the 10th February,
in all, 100 days, for lack of the limited number of thirty-five
pagazis, a number that might be procured within two days through
consular influence.
Bagamoyo has a most enjoyable climate. It is far preferable in
every sense to that of Zanzibar. We were able to sleep in the
open air, and rose refreshed and healthy each morning, to enjoy
our matutinal bath in the sea; and by the time the sun had risen
we were engaged in various preparations for our departure for the
interior. Our days were enlivened by visits from the Arabs who
were also bound for Unyanyembe; by comical scenes in the camp;
sometimes by court-martials held on the refractory; by a
boxing-match between Farquhar and Shaw, necessitating my prudent
interference when they waxed too wroth; by a hunting excursion
now and then to the Kingani plain and river; by social
conversation with the old Jemadar and his band of Baluches, who
were never tired of warning me that the Masika was at hand, and of
advising me that my best course was to hurry on before the season
for travelling expired.
Among the employees with the Expedition were two Hindi and two
Goanese. They had conceived the idea that the African interior
was an El Dorado, the ground of which was strewn over with ivory
tusks, and they had clubbed together; while their imaginations
were thus heated, to embark in a little enterprise of their own.
Their names were Jako, Abdul Kader, Bunder Salaam, and Aranselar;
Jako engaged in my service, as carpenter and general help; Abdul
Kader as a tailor, Bunder Salaam as cook, and Aranselar as chief
butler.
But Aranselar, with an intuitive eye, foresaw that I was likely to
prove a vigorous employer, and while there was yet time he devoted
most of it to conceive how it were possible to withdraw from the
engagement. He received permission upon asking for it to go to
Zanzibar to visit his friends. Two days afterwards I was informed
he had blown his right eye out, and received a medical confirmation
of the fact, and note of the extent of the injury, from Dr.
Christie, the physician to His Highness Seyd Burghash.
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