How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. LivingstoneStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Livingstone, David, 1813-1873
September 8th.--Towards night Sheikh bin Nasib received a letter from
an Arab at Mfuto, reporting that an attack was made on that place by
Mirambo and his Watuta allies. It also warned him to bid the people of
Kwihara hold themselves in readiness, because if Mirambo succeeded in
storming Mfuto, he would march direct on Kwihara.
September 9th.--Mirambo was defeated with severe loss yesterday, in his
attack upon Mfuto. He was successful in an assault he made upon a
small Wanyamwezi village, but when he attempted to storm Mfuto, he
was repulsed with severe loss, losing three of his principal men. Upon
withdrawing his forces from the attack, the inhabitants sallied out, and
followed him to the forest of Umanda, where he was again utterly routed,
himself ingloriously flying from the field.
The heads of his chief men slain in the attack were brought to Kwikuru,
the boma of Mkasiwa.
September 14th.--The Arab boy Selim is delirious from constant fever.
Shaw is sick again. These two occupy most of my time. I am turned into a
regular nurse, for I have no one to assist me in attending upon them. If
I try to instruct Abdul Kader in the art of being useful, his head is so
befogged with the villainous fumes of Unyamwezi tobacco, that he wanders
bewildered about, breaking dishes, and upsetting cooked dainties, until
I get so exasperated that my peace of mind is broken completely for
a full hour. If I ask Ferajji, my now formally constituted cook, to
assist, his thick wooden head fails to receive an idea, and I am thus
obliged to play the part of chef de cuisine.
September 15th.--The third month of my residence in Unyanyembe is almost
finished, and I am still here, but I hope to be gone before the 23rd
inst.
All last night, until nine A.M. this morning, my soldiers danced and
sang to the names of their dead comrades, whose bones now bleach in the
forests of Wilyankuru. Two or three huge pots of pombe failed to satisfy
the raging thirst which the vigorous exercise they were engaged in,
created. So, early this morning, I was called upon to contribute a
shukka for another potful of the potent liquor.
To-day I was busy selecting the loads for each soldier and pagazi. In
order to lighten their labor as much as possible, I reduced each load
from 70 lbs. to 50 lbs., by which I hope to be enabled to make some long
marches. I have been able to engage ten pagazis during the last two or
three days.
I have two or three men still very sick, and it is almost useless to
expect that they will be able to carry anything, but I am in hopes that
other men may be engaged to take their places before the actual day of
departure, which now seems to be drawing near rapidly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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