single man would remain with me. I then told him to settle with
the chief himself, and give me the account, which amounted to
three barsati, two sahari, and three yards merikani; but the
donkeys were never alluded to.

With half my men gone, I still ordered the march, though strongly
opposed to the advice of one of old Mamba's men, who was then
passing by on his way to the coast, in command of his master's
rear detachment. He thought it impossible for us to pull through
the wilderness, with its jungle grasses and roots, depending for
food only on Grant's gun and my own; still we made half-way to
the Mdaburu nullah, taking some of Mamba's out to camp with us,
as he promised to take letters and specimens down to the coast
for us, provided I paid him some cloths as ready money down, and
promised some more to be paid at Zanzibar. These letters
eventually reached home, but not the specimens.

The rains were so heavy that the whole country was now flooded,
but we pushed on to the nullah by relays, and pitched on its left
bank. In the confusion of the march, however, we lost many more
porters, who at the same time relieved us of their loads, by
slipping off stealthily into the bush.

The fifteenth was a forced halt, as the stream was so deep and so
violent we could not cross it. To make the best of this very
unfortunate interruption, I now sent on two men to Kaze, with
letters to Musa and Sheikh Snay, both old friends on the former
expedition, begging them to send me sixty men, each carrying
thirty rations of grain, and some country tobacco. The tobacco
was to gratify my men, who said of all things they most wanted to