Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-08

you are going on an expedition that
VIII last about a year, you have proba-
bly, engaged two hundred porters, q
dozen askari, or soldiers, and three
men. In addition to the supplies above
mentioned are boxes of European stores
for your own use, medicine chests. am.
munition, tentsi axes, and lastly. guns
for arming the men. Every member of
the expedition must have a gun. Infor-
nation on this latter subject NAV save
much expense and annoyance. The best
rifle for the men is the British govern
ment Snider. 1 tried a few Winchester
carblnes, but found them altogether too
| good and expensive a weapon for the
| careless and destructive Zanzibar. In
! spite of the utmost precaution on our
part, the porters will use their guns for
oroWbars for turning over their loads and
for ali eorts Of things for which a gun
was never made. A little influence in
London viii enable one to obtain and
ship to Zanzibar all the Sniders needed
at cost of about Sc apiece landed in
Zanzibar.
On the day appointed for the start your
men and goods embark aboard an Arab
dhoW for the coast. If your destination
be Mombasa, now the chief port of the
Imperial British East African company
concession two days sail will land you
in Africa proper.
The two days aboard the dhow have not
peen spent IN idleness. You and your
mead men ana Bilali Kanoya, your in
terpreter, have been making out list of
the mems names, and assigning to each
the box, bale or package he is to carry
Every load is numbered and number and
nAEnrn "a
name of the porter who is to carry it in
your memorandum. A wise man will
employ Hindi clerk to take charge of
all these details and so leave himself free
to devote more time to the object for
which the expedition is fitted out. No
detail. however, should be considered
too small or tritiing for the leaders, at
tention and scrutiny.
The porters are very much like ami
mails in the matter of never looking be-
yond the wants of the moment. They
require as much attention from their
leader as the same number of mules
would, often a great deal more. They
have a marvellous capacity for doing
things the wrong way. If q box is
breakabler 1t is very certain to be
smashed before the end of the first day.
If the weather Is rainy, your guncase,
portmanteau. camera, etc. will be sure
to be carried upside down, so that the
water gets in under the lid. The wretch
carrying your drinking water to tide you
over the first four days will lag behind
and empty half of it away to tighten his
load ere you are an hour on the road.
Half the men are carrying the guns
loaded and at full cock, ignorant as asses
of the danger of so doing, after you
have spent hours in showing them the
simple process of loading, firing, eject
ing. Cad! low stupid, how utterly in
capable of graspIng an idea they areI
No matter how irritated or dismayed
you may feel, however, at the dismal
exhibition of incapacity, assinine
stupidity, laZiness, drunkenness, re-
belliousness, and other admirable traits
from one end of your caravan to the
other as it files along the
winding footpath on the memorable
first morning of your march,
let not the slightest symptoms of either
one or the other betray themselves to
your men. Keep cool.
Let your first mornings march be |
short and easy. at this stage of the |
expedition the Zanzibar porters are |
slippery and uncertain to a degree. One |
out of every six have joined the expedi- |
tion for no other purpose than getting |
the three month S pay in advance. They |
intend to desert at the first favorable OPP |
portunity. Treat them royalty, and |
take pains to have it circulated through |
the crowds that you love the African and |
are chilly interested in making them all |
fat and wealthy. Some who have in
tended to desert within the first three
may then change their mind.
Another sensible precaution of yours
has been the employment of 100 auxil-
larry carriers, at months pay each, to
help you along for the first ten days.
Consider yourself lucky if no more than
a half dozen of your regular pegazzis
have deserted from the first nights
camp. OF the auxiliaries you have but
q dozen. Only one box has been lost,
and only one man crippled by the aeci-
dental discharge OF gun.
Capital Sixty of Teleki's men de-
serted in one day, and in poor Walter
Montague Kerr last abortive attempt,
one-half his men bolted within two days
Of leaving the coast. Disappointed and
broken in health anyway, the author of
In the Far Interior, - gave the expedi-
ton up and died before reaching Alden.
slse the white man must keep his temper
and his good spirits in Africa. To give
way to disappointment, to sink under
he effects of the blues, is as fatal as
poison to the European system IN the
bark Continent. Rebmann died because
The Sultan of Machame looted his csva-
ran and broke up his expedition. A
Ipirit of philosophy should be cultivated,
so that one can take reasoning view of
,very phase of fortunes fluctuations,
which are certain to be many and ex-
RENE in an African exploit of any mag
litude.
Much, very much. depends on the
proper selection of a head man. The
head man is q go-between, the connect
ng link between the "bwana' and the
,orters. BY secretly intriguing with the
nan against you he can do more toward
mashing up your expedition than-any
,ther agency. With a faithful, compe-
ent head man all things are possible;
With treacherous imp who is always
with the men to thwart your
inhibition, purgatory is g mild sort of
place compared with an African caravan.
In case of general INSTRUMENTATION, !
which is sure to occur sooner or later,
instead OF attempting to punish the lot,
he wisest plan is to select the ringleader