ill I stuck out, and the
grey-beards departed to tell their chief of it. Next morning he sent
them back to say he would not be cheated out of his rights as the chief
of the district. Still I would not give in, and the whole day kept
"jawing" without effect, for I could get no man to go with me until
the chief gave his sanction. I then tried to send Bombay off with Bui,
Nasib, and their guide, by night; but though Bombay was willing, the
other two hung back on the old plea. In this state of perplexity, Bui
begged I would allow him to go over to Lumeresi and see what he could do
with a present. Bui really now was my only stand-by, so I sent him off,
and next had the mortification to find that he had been humbugged by
honeyed words, as Baraka had been with Makaka, into believing that
Lumeresi was a good man, who really had no other desire at heart than
the love of seeing me. His boma, he said, did not lie much out of my
line, and he did not wish a stitch of my cloth. So far from detaining
me, he would give me as many men as I wanted; and, as an earnest of
his good intentions, he sent his copper hatchet, the badge of office as
chief of the district, as a guarantee for me.

To wait there any longer after this, I knew, would be a mere waste of
time, so I ordered my men to pack up that moment, and we all marched
over at once to Lumeresi's, when we put up in his boma. Lumeresi was
not in then, but, on his arrival at night, he beat all his drums to
celebrate the event, and fired a musket, in reply to which I fired
three shots. The same night, whilst sitting out to make astronomical
observations, I became deadly cold--so much so, that the instant I had
taken the star, to fix my position, I turned into bed, but could not get
up again; for the cough that had stuck to me for a month then became so
violent, heightened by fever succeeding the cold fit, that before the
next morning I was so reduced that I could not stand. For the last
month, too, I had not been able to sleep on either side, as interior
pressure, caused by doing so, provoked the cough; but now I had, in
addition, to be propped in position to get any repose whatever. The
symptoms, altogether, were rather alarming, for the heart felt inflamed
and ready to burst, pricking and twingeing with every breath, which was
exceedingly aggravated by constant coughing, when streams of phlegm and
bile were ejected. The left arm felt half-paralysed, the left nostril
was choked with muc