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Among the pagazis Ned had observed a young man of pleasing countenance, who had always been amongst the merriest of the merry, though his load was heavier than that of many. He had never complained, but was now staggering along endeavouring to keep up with the rest. Ned, seeing how much he was suffering, offered him a draught from his own water-bottle. "Stop!" cried Sayd.
As myself and the Wangwana appeared with the loaded donkeys, the pagazis were observed huddled on a mound. When asked if the mound was the camp, they replied "No." "Why, then, do you stop here?"
Going home has the same attraction with these black people that it has with schoolboys. The Beluches have long since behaved to admiration, and now even the lazy pagazis, since completing their traffic, have lighter hearts, and begin to feel a freshness dawn upon them. We soon entered our old village in Nera, having completed fourteen miles.
Only an ignorant African would have been satisfied with its small utility as a means to cross a deep and rapid body of water. Even for light-footed Wanyamwezi pagazis it was anything but comfortable to traverse. Only a professional tight-rope performer could have carried a load across with ease. With 70 lbs. weight on his back, the carrier finds it difficult enough.
There remained but one more sultan to whom muhongo must be paid after Mukondoku, and this was the Sultan of Kiwyeh, whose reputation was so bad that owners of property who had control over their pagazis seldom passed by Kiwyeh, preferring the hardships of long marches through the wilderness to the rudeness and exorbitant demands of the chief of Kiwyeh.
Altogether the Expedition numbers on the day of departure three white men, twenty-three soldiers, four supernumeraries, four chiefs, and one hundred and fifty-three pagazis, twenty-seven donkeys, and one cart, conveying cloth, beads, and wire, boat-fixings, tents, cooking utensils and dishes, medicine, powder, small shot, musket-balls, and metallic cartridges; instruments and small necessaries, such as soap, sugar, tea, coffee, Liebig's extract of meat, pemmican, candles, &c., which make a total of 153 loads.
He had always a ready answer, and invariably managed to catch them in their own traps, while the "great master," as he was called, managed to keep all his subordinates in pretty good order. One of his pagazis, Khamisi, under Shaw's command, having absconded, Uledi and Ferajji found him, having fallen into the hands of some plundering Washensi, who were about to kill him.
Some, more prudent, drank the water from their hands, or from cups they carried, but several, exhausted, fell with their heads below the surface. Some of these were rescued by their comrades, but many were drowned before they could be drawn out. The leaders now issued the order to encamp, and the pagazis, piling their loads, were compelled to search for wood.
The country due west of Bagomoyo was found to be covered with towns and villages which were previously unknown. Soon after starting, Omar, the watch-dog was missing, when Mabruki, hastening back, found him at the previous halting-place. One of the caravans at the same place was detained by the sickness of three of the pagazis, whose places it was necessary to supply.
The Arabs, kneeling on their carpets, joined by the Mohammedans among their followers, offered up their prayers to Allah as the first gleam of the sun rose above the horizon; then the morning meal being hastily taken, the pagazis shouldered their loads and the march commenced. As Sayd had predicted, no songs, no shouts were heard; even the merriest among the blacks were silent.
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