the little huts of a few hundred natives. This, indeed, was only the
place where the latter were first received and armed, and they were then
sent up the river in the steamboat belonging to the expedition, to the
great camp some thirty miles higher.

The expedition consisted only of some seven or eight English officers.
Captain Glover of the royal navy was in command, with Mr. Goldsworthy
and Captain Sartorius as his assistants. There were four other officers,
two doctors, and an officer of commissariat. This little body had the
whole work of drilling and keeping in order some eight or ten
thousand men. They were generals, colonels, sergeants, quartermasters,
storekeepers, and diplomatists, all at once, and from daybreak until
late at night were incessantly at work. There were at least a dozen
petty kings in camp, all of whom had to be kept in a good temper, and
this was by no means the smallest of Captain Glover's difficulties, as
upon the slightest ground for discontent each of these was ready at once
to march away with his followers. The most reliable portion of Captain
Glover's force were some 250 Houssas, and as many Yorabas. In addition
to all their work with the native allies, the officers of the expedition
had succeeded in drilling both these bodies until they had obtained a
very fair amount of discipline.

After strolling through the camp the visitors went to look on at the
distribution of arms and accouterments to a hundred freshly arrived
natives. They were served out with blue smocks, made of serge, and blue
nightcaps, which had the result of transforming a fine looking body of
natives, upright in carriage, and graceful in their toga-like attire,
into a set of awkward looking, clumsy negroes. A haversack, water
bottle, belts, cap pouch, and ammunition pouch, were also handed to each
to their utter bewilderment, and it was easy to foresee that at the end
of the first day's march the whole of these, to them utterly useless
articles, would be thrown aside. They brightened up, however, when the
guns were delivered to them. The first impulse of each was to examine
his piece carefully, to try its balance by taking aim at distant
objects, then to carefully rub off any little spot of rust that could be
detected, lastly to take out the ramrod and let it fall into the barrel,
to judge by the ring whether it was clean inside.

Thence the visitors strolled away to watch a number of Houssas in hot
pursuit of some bull