r. Sheikh Said
was his clerk and constant companion, and the Tots were well fed on his
goats--at my expense, however. On hearing my fix, Abdalla said I should
have men; and, what's more, he would go with me as his father had
promised to do; but he had a large caravan detained in Ugogo, and for
that he must wait.

At that moment Manua Sera was in a boma at Kigue, in alliance with the
chief of that place; but there was no hope for him now, as all the Arabs
had allied themselves with the surrounding chiefs, including Kitambi;
and had invested his position by forming a line, in concentric circles,
four deep, cutting off his supplies of water within it, so that they
daily expected to hear of his surrendering. The last news that had
reached them brought intelligence of one man killed and two Arabs
wounded; whilst, on the other side, Manua Sera had lost many men, and
was put to such straits that he had called out if it was the Arabs'
determination to kill him he would bolt again; to which the Arabs
replied it was all the same; if he ran up to the top of the highest
mountain or down into hell, they would follow after and put him to
death.

3d.--After much bother and many disappointments, as I was assured I
could get no men to help me until after the war was over, and the Arabs
had been to Ugogo, and had brought up their property, which was still
lying there, I accepted two men as guides--one named Bui, a very small
creature, with very high pretensions, who was given me by Abdalla--the
other, a steady old traveller, named Nasib (or Fortune), who was given
me by Fundi Sangoro. These two slaves, both of whom knew all the chiefs
and languages up to and including Uganda, promised me faithfully they
would go with Bombay on to Usui, and bring back porters in sufficient
number for Grant and myself to go on together. They laughed at the
stories I told them of the terror that had seized Baraka and all the
Wanguana, and told me, as old Musa had often done before, that those
men, especially Baraka, had from their first leaving Kaze made up their
minds they would not enter Usui, or go anywhere very far north.

I placed those men on the same pay as Bombay, and then tried to buy
some beads from the Arabs, as I saw it was absolutely necessary I should
increase my fast-ebbing store if I ever hoped to reach Gondokoro. The
attempt failed, as the Arabs would not sell at a rate under 2000 per
cent.; and I wrote a letter to Colonel Rigby, orderin