those
days, and as no men could be found who would take service to Karague,
we filled up our complement with men at exorbitant wages to carry our
things on to Usui. At this place, to our intense joy, three of Sheikh
Said's boys came to us with a letter from Rigby; but, on opening it, our
spirits at once fell far below zero, for it only informed us that he
had sent us all kinds of nice things, and letters from home, which were
packed up in boxes, and despatched from the coast on the 30th October
1860.

The boys then told me that a merchant, nickname Msopora, had left the
boxes in Ugogo, in charge of some of those Arabs who were detained
there, whilst he went rapidly round by the south, following up the Ruaha
river to Usanga and Usenga, whence he struck across to Kaze. Sheikh
Said, they said, sent his particular respects to me; he had heard of
Grant's disasters with great alarm. If he could be of service, he
would readily come to me; but he had dreamed three times that he saw me
marching into Cairo, which, as three times were lucky, he was sure would
prove good, and he begged I would still keep my nose well to the front,
and push boldly on. Manua Sera was still in the field, and all was
uncertain. Bombay then told me--he had forgotten to do so before--that
when he was last at Kaze, Sheikh said told him he was sure we would
succeed if both he and myself pulled together, although it was well
known no one else of my party wished to go northwards.

With at last a sufficiency of porters, we all set out together, walking
over a new style of country. Instead of the constantly-recurring
outcrops of granite, as in Unyamuezi, with valleys between, there were
only two lines of little hills visible, one right and one left of us, a
good way off; whilst the ground over which we were travelling, instead
of being confined like a valley, rose in long high swells of sandstone
formation, covered with small forest-trees, among which flowers like
primroses, only very much larger, and mostly of a pink colour, were
frequently met with. Indeed, we ought all to have been happy together,
for all my men were paid and rationed trebly--far better than they would
have been if they had been travelling with any one else; but I had not
paid all, as they thought, proportionably, and therefore there were
constant heartburnings, with strikes and rows every day. It was
useless to tell them that they were all paid according to their own
agreements--that al