"Unfurl the flags, and load your guns!"
"We will, master, we will, master!" respond the men eagerly.
"One, two, three, - fire!"
A volley from nearly fifty guns roars like a salute from a
battery of artillery : we shall note its effect presently on
the peaceful-looking village below.
"Now, kirangozi, hold the white man's flag up high, and let the
Zanzibar flag bring up the rear. And you men keep close together,
and keep firing until we halt in the market-place, or before the
white man's house. You have said to me often that you could smell
the fish of the Tanganika - I can smell the fish of the Tanganika
now. There are fish, and beer, and a long rest waiting for you.
MARCH!"
Before we had gone a hundred yards our repeated volleys had the
effect desired. We had awakened Ujiji to the knowledge that a
caravan was coming, and the people were witnessed rushing up in
hundreds to meet us. The mere sight of the flags informed every
one immediately that we were a caravan, but the American flag
borne aloft by gigantic Asmani, whose face was one vast smile on
this day, rather staggered them at first.
