How I Found Livingstone | Page 9

Ujiji and
Uguhha, would be refused in all other countries; the white (Merikani)
beads though good in Ufipa, and some parts of Usagara and Ugogo,
would certainly be despised in Useguhha and Ukonongo. Such being
the case, I was obliged to study closely, and calculate the probable stay
of an expedition in the several countries, so as to be sure to provide a
sufficiency of each kind, and guard against any great overplus. Burton
and Speke, for instance, were obliged to throw away as worthless
several hundred fundo of beads.
For example, supposing the several nations of Europe had each its own
currency, without the means of exchange, and supposing a man was
about to travel through Europe on foot, before starting he would be apt
to calculate how many days it would take him to travel through France;
how many through Prussia, Austria, and Russia, then to reckon the
expense he would be likely to incur per day. If the expense be set down
at a napoleon per day, and his journey through France would occupy
thirty days, the sum required forgoing and returning might be properly
set down at sixty napoleons, in which case, napoleons not being current
money in Prussia, Austria, or Russia, it would be utterly useless for him
to burden himself with the weight of a couple of thousand napoleons in
gold.
My anxiety on this point was most excruciating. Over and over I
studied the hard names and measures, conned again and again the
polysyllables; hoping to be able to arrive some time at an intelligible
definition of the terms. I revolved in my mind the words Mukunguru,
Ghulabio, Sungomazzi, Kadunduguru, Mutunda, Samisami, Bubu,
Merikani, Hafde, Lunghio-Rega, and Lakhio, until I was fairly beside

myself. Finally, however, I came to the conclusion that if I reckoned
my requirements at fifty khete, or five fundo per day, for two years, and
if I purchased only eleven varieties, I might consider myself safe
enough. The purchase was accordingly made, and twenty-two sacks of
the best species were packed and brought to Capt. Webb's house, ready
for transportation to Bagamoyo.
After the beads came the wire question. I discovered, after considerable
trouble, that Nos. 5 and 6--almost of the thickness of telegraph
wire--were considered the best numbers for trading purposes. While
beads stand for copper coins in Africa, cloth measures for silver; wire is
reckoned as gold in the countries beyond the Tan-ga-ni-ka.* Ten
frasilah, or 350 lbs., of brass-wire, my Arab adviser thought, would be
ample. _________________ * It will be seen that I differ from Capt.
Burton in the spelling of this word, as I deem the letter " y "
superfluous. ________________
Having purchased the cloth, the beads, and the wire, it was with no
little pride that I surveyed the comely bales and packages lying piled up,
row above row, in Capt. Webb's capacious store-room. Yet my work
was not ended, it was but beginning; there were provisions,
cooking-utensils, boats, rope, twine, tents, donkeys, saddles, bagging,
canvas, tar, needles, tools, ammunition, guns, equipments, hatchets,
medicines, bedding, presents for chiefs--in short, a thousand things not
yet purchased. The ordeal of chaffering and -haggling with
steel-hearted Banyans, Hindis, Arabs, and half-castes was most trying.
For instance, I purchased twenty-two donkeys at Zanzibar. $40 and $50
were asked, which I had to reduce to $15 or $20 by an infinite amount
of argument worthy, I think, of a nobler cause. As was my experience
with the ass-dealers so was it with the petty merchants; even a paper of
pins was not purchased without a five per cent. reduction from the price
demanded, involving, of course, a loss of much time and patience.
After collecting the donkeys, I discovered there were no pack-saddles
to be obtained in Zanzibar. Donkeys without pack-saddles were of no
use whatever. I invented a saddle to be manufactured by myself and my
white man Farquhar, wholly from canvas, rope, and cotton.
Three or four frasilahs of cotton, and ten bolts of canvas were required
for the saddles. A specimen saddle was made by myself in order to test
its efficiency. A donkey was taken and saddled, and a load of 140 lbs.

was fastened to it, and though the animal--a wild creature of
Unyamwezi--struggled and reared frantic ally, not a particle gave way.
After this experiment, Farquhar was set to work to manufacture
twenty-one more after the same pattern. Woollen pads were also
purchased to protect the animals from being galled. It ought to be
mentioned here, perhaps, that the idea of such a saddle as I
manufactured, was first derived from the Otago saddle, in use among
the transport-trains of the English army in Abyssinia.
A man named John William Shaw--a native of London, England, lately
third-mate of the American ship `Nevada'--applied to