A year,
half that sum in advance, a good muzzle-loading rifle, besides, a
pistol, knife, and hatchet were given to him, while the other five
"Faithfuls," Ambari, Mabruki, Ulimengo, Baruti, and Uledi, were
engaged at $40 a year, with proper equipments as soldiers.
Having studied fairly well all the East African travellers' books
regarding Eastern and Central Africa, my mind had conceived the
difficulties which would present themselves during the prosecution
of my search after Dr. Livingstone.
To obviate all of these, as well as human wit could suggest, was
my constant thought and aim.
"Shall I permit myself, while looking from Ujiji over the waters of
the Tanganika Lake to the other side, to be balked on the threshold
of success by the insolence of a King Kannena or the caprice of a
Hamed bin Sulayyam?" was a question I asked myself. To guard
against such a contingency I determined to carry my own boats.
"Then," I thought, "if I hear of Livingstone being on the
Tanganika, I can launch my boat and proceed after him."
I procured one large boat, capable of carrying twenty persons,
with stores and goods sufficient for a cruise, from the American
Consul, for the sum of $80, and a smaller one from another American
gentleman for $40. The latter would hold comfortably six men,
with suitable stores.
I did not intend to carry the boats whole or bodily, but to strip
them of their boards, and carry the timbers and thwarts only. As
a substitute for the boards, I proposed to cover each boat with a
double canvas skin well tarred. The work of stripping them and
taking them to pieces fell to me. This little job occupied me
five days.
I also packed them up, for the pagazis. Each load was carefully
weighed, and none exceeded 68 lbs. in weight. John Shaw excelled
himself in the workmanship displayed on the canvas boats; when
finished, they fitted their frames admirably. The canvas - six
bolts of English hemp, No. 3 - was procured from Ludha Damji,
who furnished it from the Sultan's storeroom.
An insuperable obstacle to rapid transit in Africa is the want of
carriers, and as speed was the main object of the Expedition under
my command, my duty was to lessen this difficulty as much as
possible. My carriers could only be engaged after arriving at
Bagamoyo, on the mainland. I had over twenty good donkeys ready,
and I thought a cart adapted for the footpaths of Africa might
prove an advantage. Accordingly I had a cart constructed,
eighteen inches wide and five feet long, supplied with two
fore-wheels of a light American wagon, more for the purpose of
conveying the narrow ammunition-boxes. I estimated that if a
donkey could carry to Unyanyembe a load of four frasilahs,
or 140 lbs., he ought to be able to draw eight frasilahs on such
a cart, which would be equal to the carrying capacity of four
stout pagazis or carriers. Events will prove, how my theories
were borne out by practice.
When my purchases were completed, and I beheld them piled up, tier
after tier, row upon row, here a mass of cooking-utensils, there
bundles of rope, tents, saddles, a pile of portmanteaus and boxes,
containing every imaginable thing, I confess I was rather abashed
at my own temerity. Here were at least six tons of material!
"How will it ever be possible," I thought, "to move all this inert
mass across the wilderness stretching between the sea, and the
great lakes of Africa? Bah, cast all doubts away, man, and have
at them! `Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,' without
borrowing from the morrow."
The traveller must needs make his way into the African interior
after a fashion very different from that to which he has been
accustomed in other countries. He requires to take with him just
what a ship must have when about to sail on a long voyage. He
must have his slop chest, his little store of canned dainties,
and his medicines, besides which, he must have enough guns, powder,
and ball to be able to make a series of good fights if necessary.
He must have men to convey these miscellaneous articles; and as a
man's maximum load does not exceed 70 lbs., to convey 11,000 lbs.
requires nearly 160 men.
Europe and the Orient, even Arabia and Turkestan, have royal ways
of travelling compared to Africa. Specie is received in all those
countries, by which a traveller may carry his means about with
him on his own person. Eastern and Central Africa, however, demand
a necklace, instead of a cent; two yards of American sheeting,
instead of half a dollar, or a florin, and a kitindi of thick
brass-wire, in place of a gold piece.
The African traveller can hire neither wagons nor camels, neither
horses nor mules, to proceed with him into the interior. His means
of conveyance are limited to black and naked men, who demand at
least $15 a head for every 70 lbs. weight carried only as far as
Unyanyembe.
One thing amongst others my predecessors omitted to inform men
bound for Africa, which is of importance, and that is, that no
traveller should ever think of coming to Zanzibar with his money
in any other shape than gold coin. Letters of credit, circular
notes, and such civilized things I have found to be a century
ahead of Zanzibar people.
Twenty and twenty-five cents deducted out of every dollar I drew
on paper is one of the unpleasant, if not unpleasantest things I
have committed to lasting memory. For Zanzibar is a spot far
removed from all avenues of European commerce, and coin is at a
high premium.
