Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-12


| quires.
If you are going on an expedition that
| will last about 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, tents; axes, and lastly, guns
| for arming the men. Every member of
the expedition must have gun. Infor-
nation on this latter subject may save
much expense and annoyance. The best
rife for the men is the British govern
ment Snider. 1 tried few Winchester
carbmes, 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
crowbars for turning over their loads and
for ali aorts of things for which q gun
was never made. A little influence in
London will enable one to obtain and
ship to Zanzibar all the Sniders needed
at a 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 s
concession, two days. sail will land you
in Africa proper.
The two days aboard the dhow have not
been spent IN idleness. You and your
head men and Bilali Kamoya, your in
terpreter, have been making out list of
the men s names, and assigning to each
the box, bale or package he is to carry.
Every load is numbered and number and
nature of contents written opposite the
name of the porter who is to carry it in
your memorandum. A wise man will
employ Hindu 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 trifling TOR the LEADER 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 great deal more. They
have marvellous capacity for doing
things the wrong way. If q box is
breakable, 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
1aA Of ,,n
of the danger of so doing, after you
have spent hours in showing them the
simple process of loading, firing, eject
ing. Cad! tow stupid, how utterly in
capable of graspIng an idea they arel
No matter how irritated or dismayed
you may feel, however, at the dismal
exhibition of incapaoity, 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. st this stage of the
slippery and uncertain to degree. One
out of every six have joined the eXpedi-
ton 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
marches may then change their mind.
Another sensible precaution of yours
has been the employment of 100 auxil-
larry carriers, at month s pay each, TO
help YOU along for the first ten DAYS.
Consider yourself lucky if no more than
q half dozen of your regular pegazzis
have deserted from the first nights
camp. OF the auXiliaries you have but
g dozen. Only one box has been lost,
and only one man crippled by the acct
dental discharge OF a gun.
Capital! Sixty of Teleki's men de-
serted in one day, and in poor Walter
Montague Kerr S 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.
No matter what may happen, above all
else the white man must keep his temper
and his good spirits in Africa. To give
way TO disappointment, 10 sink under
the effects of the blues, is as fatal as
poison to the European system IN the |
Dark Continent. Rebmann died because |
the Sultan of Machame looted his cava-
van and broke up his expedition. a |
spirit of philosophy should be cultivated, |
so that one can take q reasoning view of |
every phase of fortunes fluctuations,
which are certain to be many and ex- |
IRENE in an African exploit of any mag |
Much, very much. depends on the |
proper selection of a head man. The |
head man is a go-between, the connect |
ing link between the "bwana' and the |
porters. BY secretly intriguing with the |
man against you he can do more toward |
smashing up your expedition than any |
other agency. With a faithful, compe- |
tent head man all things are possible: |
with a treacherous imp who is always |
with the men to thwart your |
ambition, purgatory is q mild sort of a |
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,
the wisest plan is to select the ringleader |
and punish him till you are ashamed of |
Yourself. Then give the others to uu- |