How I Found Livingstone - Henry M. Stanley (best ereader for comics txt) 📗
- Author: Henry M. Stanley
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wherever I liked in short, be a pattern to servants, and a model
to soldiers. He hoped I would give him a uniform, and a good gun,
both of which were promised.
Upon inquiring for the rest of the “Faithfuls” who accompanied
Speke into Egypt, I was told that at Zanzibar there were but six.
Ferrajji, Maktub, Sadik, Sunguru, Manyu, Matajari, Mkata, and
Almas, were dead; Uledi and Mtamani were in Unyanyembe; Hassan
had gone to Kilwa, and Ferahan was supposed to be in Ujiji.
Out of the six “Faithfuls,” each of whom still retained his medal
for assisting in the “Discovery of the Sources of the Nile,” one,
poor Mabruki, had met with a sad misfortune, which I feared would
incapacitate him from active usefulness.
Mabruki the “Bullheaded,” owned a shamba (or a house with a garden
attached to it), of which he was very proud. Close to him lived a
neighbour in similar circumstances, who was a soldier of Seyd
Majid, with whom Mabruki, who was of a quarrelsome disposition, had
a feud, which culminated in the soldier inducing two or three of
his comrades to assist him in punishing the malevolent Mabruki, and
this was done in a manner that only the heart of an African could
conceive. They tied the unfortunate fellow by his wrists to a
branch of a tree, and after indulging their brutal appetite for
revenge in torturing him, left him to hang in that position for
two days. At the expiration of the second day, he was accidentally
discovered in a most pitiable condition. His hands had swollen to
an immense size, and the veins of one hand having been ruptured,
he had lost its use. It is needless to say that, when the affair
came to Seyd Majid’s ears, the miscreants were severely punished.
Dr. Kirk, who attended the poor fellow, succeeded in restoring one
hand to something of a resemblance of its former shape, but the
other hand is sadly marred, and its former usefulness gone for
ever.
However, I engaged Mabruki, despite his deformed hands, his
ugliness and vanity, because he was one of Speke’s “Faithfuls.” For
if he but wagged his tongue in my service, kept his eyes open, and
opened his mouth at the proper time, I assured myself I could make
him useful.
Bombay, my captain of escort, succeeded in getting eighteen more
free men to volunteer as “askari” (soldiers), men whom he knew
would not desert, and for whom he declared himself responsible.
They were an exceedingly fine-looking body of men, far more
intelligent in appearance than I could ever have believed African
barbarians could be. They hailed principally from Uhiyow, others
from Unyamwezi, some came from Useguhha and Ugindo.
Their wages were set down at $36 each man per annum, or $3 each per
month. Each soldier was provided with a flintlock musket, powder
horn, bullet-pouch, knife, and hatchet, besides enough powder and
ball for 200 rounds.
Bombay, in consideration of his rank, and previous faithful
services to Burton, Speke and Grant, was engaged at $80 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. A man may talk and entreat, but though he may have
drafts, cheques, circular notes, letters of credit, a carte blanche
to get what he wants, out of every dollar must, be deducted twenty,
twenty-five and thirty cents, so I was told, and so was my
experience. What a pity there is no branch-bank here!
I had intended to have gone into Africa incognito. But the fact
that a white man, even an American, was about to enter Africa was
soon known all over Zanzibar. This fact was repeated a thousand
times in the streets, proclaimed in all shop alcoves, and at the
custom-house. The native bazaar laid hold of it, and agitated it
day and night until my departure. The foreigners, including the
Europeans, wished to know the pros and cons of my coming in and
going out.
My answer to all questions, pertinent and impertinent, was, I am
going to Africa. Though my card bore the words
________________________________________
| |
| HENRY M. STANLEY. |
| |
| |
| New York Herald. |
|________________________________________|
very few, I believe, ever coupled the words `New York Herald’
with a search after “Doctor Livingstone.” It was not my fault,
was it?
Ah, me! what hard work it is to start an expedition alone! What
with hurrying through the baking heat of the fierce relentless sun
from shop to shop, strengthening myself with far-reaching and
enduring patience far the haggling contest with the livid-faced
Hindi, summoning courage and wit to brow-beat the villainous Goanese,
and match the foxy Banyan, talking volumes throughout the day,
correcting estimates, making up accounts, superintending the
delivery of purchased articles, measuring and weighing them, to see
that everything was of full measure and weight, overseeing the white
men Farquhar and Shaw, who were busy on donkey saddles, sails, tents,
and boats for the Expedition, I felt, when the day was over, as
though limbs and brain well deserved their rest. Such labours were
mine unremittingly for a month.
Having bartered drafts on Mr. James Gordon Bennett to the amount
of several thousand dollars for cloth, beads, wire, donkeys, and
a thousand necessaries, having advanced pay to the white men, and
black escort of the Expedition, having fretted Capt. Webb and his
family more than enough with the din of preparation, and filled
his house with my goods, there was nothing further to do but to
leave my formal adieus with the Europeans, and thank the Sultan
and those gentlemen who had assisted me, before embarking for
Bagamoyo.
The day before my departure from Zanzibar the American Consul,
having just habited himself in his black coat, and taking with him
an extra black hat, in order to be in state apparel, proceeded with
me to the Sultan’s palace. The prince had been generous to me;
he had presented me with an Arab horse, had furnished me with
letters of introduction to his agents, his chief men, and
representatives in the interior,
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