How I Found Livingstone - Henry M. Stanley (best ereader for comics txt) 📗

of the

cacotrophic dourra and maize food we had been subjected to in the

wilderness. I conscientiously believed that a diet on potted ham,

crackers, and jellies would make me as invincible as Talus, and

that I only required a stout flail to be able to drive the mighty

Wagogo into the regions of annihiliation, should they dare even to

wink in a manner I disapproved.

 

The first box opened contained three tins of biscuits, six tins

of potted hams—tiny things, not much larger than thimbles, which,

when opened, proved to be nothing more than a table-spoonful of

minced meat plentifully seasoned with pepper: the Doctor’s stores

fell five hundred degrees below zero in my estimation. Next were

brought out five pots of jam, one of which was opened—this was also

a delusion. The stone jars weighed a pound, and in each was found

a little over a tea-spoonful of jam. Verily, we began to think our

hopes and expectations had been raised to too high a pitch. Three

bottles of curry were next produced—but who cares for curry?

Another box was opened, and out tumbled a fat dumpy Dutch cheese,

hard as a brick, but sound and good; though it is bad for the

liver in Unyamwezi. Then another cheese was seen, but this was

all eaten up—it was hollow and a fraud. The third box contained

nothing but two sugar loaves; the fourth, candles; the fifth,

bottles of salt, Harvey, Worcester, and Reading sauces, essence

of anchovies, pepper, and mustard. Bless me! what food were these

for the revivifying of a moribund such as I was! The sixth box

contained four shirts, two pairs of stout shoes, some stockings and

shoe-strings, which delighted the Doctor so much when he tried them

on that he exclaimed, “Richard is himself again!” “That man,” said

I, “whoever he is, is a friend, indeed.” “Yes, that is my friend

Waller.”

 

The five other boxes contained potted meat and soups; but the

twelfth, containing one dozen bottles of medicinal brandy, was

gone;and a strict cross-examination of Asmani, the head man of

Livingstone’s caravan, elicited the fact, that not only was one

case of brandy missing, but also two bales of cloth and four bags

of the most valuable beads in Africa—sami-sami—which are as gold

with the natives.

 

I was grievously disappointed after the stores had been examined;

everything proved to be deceptions in my jaundiced eyes. Out of

the tins of biscuits when opened, there was only one sound box;

the whole of which would not make one full meal. The soups—who

cared for meat soups in Africa? Are there no bullocks, and sheep,

and goats in the land, from which far better soup can be made than

any that was ever potted? Peas, or any other kind of vegetable

soup, would have been a luxury; but chicken and game soups!—what

nonsense!

 

I then overhauled my own stores. I found some fine old brandy

and one bottle of champagne still left; though it was evident,

in looking at the cloth bales, that dishonesty had been at work;

and some person happened to suggest Asmani—the head man sent by

Dr. Kirk in charge of Livingstone’s goods—as the guilty party.

Upon his treasures being examined, I found eight or ten coloured

cloths, with the mark of my own agent at Zanzibar on them. As he

was unable to give a clear account of how they came in his box,

they were at once confiscated, and distributed among the most

deserving of the Doctor’s people. Some of the watchmen also

accused him of having entered into my storeroom, and of having

abstracted two or three gorah of domestics from my bales,

and of having, some days afterwards, snatched the keys from the

hands of one of my men, and broken them, lest other people might

enter, and find evidences of his guilt. As Asmani was proved to

be another of the “moral idiots,” Livingstone discharged him on

the spot. Had we not arrived so soon at Unyanyembe, it is probable

that the entire stock sent from Zanzibar had in time disappeared.

 

Unyanyembe being rich in fruits, grain, and cattle, we determined

to have our Christmas dinner over again in style, and, being

fortunately in pretty good health, I was enabled to superintend

its preparation. Never was such prodigality seen in a tembe of

Unyamwezi as was seen in ours, nor were ever such delicacies

provided.

 

There were but few Arabs in Unyanyembe when we arrived, as they

were investing the stronghold of Mirambo. About a week after our

return, “the little mannikin,” Sheikh Sayd bin Salim—El Wali—who

was the commander-in-chief of their forces, came to Kwihara from

the front. But the little Sheikh was in no great hurry to greet

the man he had wronged so much. As soon as we heard of his arrival

we took the opportunity to send men immediately after the goods

which were forwarded to the Wali’s care soon after Livingstone’s

departure for Mikindany Bay. The first time we sent men for them

the governor declared himself too sick to attend to such matters,

but the second day they were surrendered, with a request that the

Doctor would not be very angry at their condition, as the white

ants had destroyed everything.

 

The stores this man had detained at Unyanyembe were in a most sorry

state. The expenses were prepaid for their carriage to Ujiji, but

the goods had been purposely detained at this place by Sayd bin

Salim since 1867 that he might satisfy his appetite for liquor,

and probably fall heir to two valuable guns that were known to be

with them. The white ants had not only eaten up bodily the box

in which the guns were packed, but they had also eaten the gunstocks.

The barrels were corroded, and the locks were quite destroyed.

The brandy bottles, most singular to relate, had also fallen a prey

to the voracious and irresistible destroyers the white ants—and,

by some unaccountable means, they had imbibed the potent Hennessy,

and replaced the corks with corn-cobs. The medicines had also

vanished, and the zinc pots in which they had been snugly packed

up were destroyed by corrosion. Two bottles of brandy and one small

zinc case of medicines only were saved out of the otherwise utter

wreck.

 

I also begged the Doctor to send to Sheikh Sayd, and ask him if he

had received the two letters despatched by him upon his first

arrival at Ujiji for Dr. Kirk and Lord Clarendon; and if he had

forwarded them to the coast, as he was desired to do. The reply

to the messengers was in the affirmative; and, subsequently, I

obtained the same answer in the presence of the Doctor,

 

On the 222nd of February, the pouring rain, which had dogged us

the entire distance from Ujiji, ceased, and we had now beautiful

weather; and while I prepared for the homeward march, the Doctor

was busy writing his letters, and entering his notes into his

journal, which I was to take to his family. When not thus

employed, we paid visits to the Arabs at Tabora, by whom we were

both received with that bounteous hospitality for which they are

celebrated.

 

Among the goods turned over by me to Dr. Livingstone, while

assorting such cloths as I wished to retain for my homeward trip,

were—

 

Doti. Yards.

 

First-class American sheeting … 285 = 1140

 

” Kaniki (blue stuff) … 16 = 64

 

Medium ” (blue stuff) … 60 = 240

 

” Dabwani cloth … . 41 = 64

 

Barsati cloths … . 28 = 112

 

Printed handkerchiefs . . 70 = 280

 

Medium Rehani cloth … . . 127 = 508

 

” Ismahili ” … . 20 = 80

 

” Sohari ” … . . 20 = 80

 

4 pieces fine Kungura (red check) 22 = 88

 

4 gorah Rehani … … . 8 = 32

 

Total number of cloths . 697 = 2788

 

Besides:

 

Cloth, 2788 yards.

 

Assorted beads, 16 sacks, weight = 992 lbs.

 

Brass wire, Nos. 5 and 6; 10 fraslilah = 350 lbs.

 

1 canvas tent, waterproof.

 

1 air-bed.

 

1 boat (canvas}

 

1 bag of tools, carpenter’s.

 

1 rip saw.

 

2 barrels of tar.

 

12 sheets of ship’s copper = 60 lbs.

 

Clothes.

 

1 Jocelyn breechloader (metallic cartridge).

 

1 Starr’s ” ” “

 

1 Henry (16-shooter) ” “

 

1 revolver.

 

200 rounds revolver ammunition.

 

2000 ” Jocelyn and Starrs ammunition.

 

1500 ” Henry rifle ammunition.

 

Cooking utensils, medicine chest, books, sextant, canvas bags, &c.,

&c., &c.

 

The above made a total of about forty loads. Many things in the

list would have brought fancy prices in Unyanyembe, especially

the carbines and ammunition, the saw, carpenter’s tools the beads,

and wire. Out of the thirty-three loads which were stored for him

in my tembe—the stock sent to Livingstone, Nov. 1,1870—but few

of them would be available for his return trip to Rua and Manyuema.

The 696 doti of cloth which were left to him formed the only

marketable articles of value he possessed; and in Manyuema, where

the natives manufactured their own cloth, such an article would be

considered a drug; while my beads and wire, with economy, would

suffice to keep him and his men over two years in those regions.

His own cloth, and what I gave him, made in the aggregate 1,393

doti, which, at 2 doti per day for food, were sufficient to keep

him and sixty men 696 days. He had thus four years’ supplies.

The only articles he lacked to make a new and completely fitted-up

expedition were the following, a list of which he and I drew up;—

 

A few tins of American wheat-flour.

” ” soda crackers.

” ” preserved fruits

A few tins of salmon,

10 lbs. Hyson tea.

Some sewing thread and needles.

1 dozen official envelopes.

`Nautical Almanac’ for 1872 and 1873.

1 blank journal.

1 chronometer, stopped.

1 chain for refractory people.

 

With the articles just named he would have a total of seventy

loads, but without carriers they were an incumbrance to him; for,

with only the nine men which he now had, he could go nowhere with

such a splendid assortment of goods. I was therefore commissioned

to enlist,—as soon as I reached Zanzibar,—fifty freemen, arm them

with a gun and hatchet each man, besides accoutrements, and to

purchase two thousand bullets, one thousand flints, and ten kegs of

gunpowder. The men were to act as carriers, to follow wherever

Livingstone might desire to go. For, without men, he was simply

tantalized with the aspirations roused in him by the knowledge

that he had abundance of means, which were irrealizable without

carriers. All the wealth of London and New York piled before him

were totally unavailable to him without the means of locomotion.

No Mnyamwezi engages himself as carrier during war-time. You who

have read the diary of my ‘Life in Unyanyembe’ know what stubborn

Conservatives the Wanyamwezi are. A duty lay yet before me which

I owed to my illustrious companion, and that was to hurry to the

coast as if on a matter of life and death—act for him in the matter

of enlisting men as if he were there himself—to work for him with

the same zeal as I would for myself—not to halt or rest until his

desires should be gratified, And this I vowed to do; but it was

a death-blow to my project of going down the Nile, and getting

news of Sir S. Baker.

 

The Doctor’s task of writing his letters was ended. He delivered

into my hand twenty letters for Great Britain, six for Bombay,

two for New York, and one