My motive for deferring the journey a year was the hope that I
might, in the meanwhile, send on fifty men, carrying beads and
brass wire, under charge of Arab ivory-traders, to Karague, and
fifty men more, in the same way, to Kaze; whilst I, arriving in
the best season for travelling (May, June, or July), would be
able to push on expeditiously to my depots so formed, and thus
escape the great disadvantages of travelling with a large caravan
in a country where no laws prevail to protect one against
desertions and theft. Moreover, I knew that the negroes who would
have to go with me, as long as they believed I had property in
advance, would work up to it willingly, as they would be the
gainers by doing so; whilst, with nothing before them, they would
be always endeavouring to thwart my advance, to save them from a
trouble which their natural laziness would prompt them to escape
from.

This beautiful project, I am sorry to say, was doomed from the
first; for I did not get the œ2500 grant of money or appointment
to the command until fully nine months had elapsed, when I wrote
to Colonel Rigby, our Consul at Zanzibar, to send on the first
instalment of property towards the interior.

As time then advanced, the Indian branch of the Government very
graciously gave me fifty artillery carbines, with belts and
sword-bayonets attached, and 20,000 rounds of ball ammunition.
They lent me as many surveying instruments as I wanted; and,
through Sir George Clerk, put at my disposal some rich presents,
in gold watches, for the chief Arabs who had so generously
assisted us in the last expedition. Captain Grant, hearing that
I was bound on this journey, being an old friend and brother