On the road may be 10 days
Still to come 30 days, June 30 "
—­
Ought to arrive 10th or 15th of July 40 "

14th of June = Stanley being away now 3 months; say he left Zanzibar 24th of May = at Aden 1st of June = Suez 8th of June, near Malta 14th of June.

Stanley’s men may arrive in July next.  Then engage pagazi half a month = August, 5 months of this year will remain for journey, the whole of 1873 will be swallowed up in work, but in February or March, 1874, please the Almighty Disposer of events, I shall complete my task and retire.

2nd June, 1872.—­A second crop here, as in Angola.  The lemons and pomegranates are flowering and putting out young fruits anew, though the crops of each have just been gathered.  Wheat planted a month ago is now a foot high, and in three months will be harvested.  The rice and dura are being reaped, and the hoes are busy getting virgin land ready.  Beans, and Madagascar underground beans, voandzeia and ground-nuts are ripe now.  Mangoes are formed; the weather feels cold, min. 62 deg., max. 74 deg., and stimulates the birds to pair and build, though they are of broods scarcely weaned from being fed by their parents.  Bees swarm and pass over us.  Sky clear, with fleecy clouds here and there.

7th June, 1872.—­Sultan bin Ali called.  He says that the path by Fipa is the best, it has plenty of game, and people are friendly.[22] By going to Amran I should get into the vicinity of Merere, and possibly be detained, as the country is in a state of war.  The Beluch would naturally wish to make a good thing of me, as he did of Speke.  I gave him a cloth and arranged the Sungomaze beads, but the box and beads weigh 140 lbs., or two men’s loads.  I visited Lewale.  Heard of Baker going to Unyoro Water, Lake Albert.  Lewale praises the road by Moeneyungo and Merere, and says he will give a guide, but he never went that way.

10th June, 1872.—­Othman, our guide from Ujiji hither, called to-day, and says positively that the way by Fipa is decidedly the shortest and easiest:  there is plenty of game, and the people are all friendly.  He reports that Mirambo’s headman, Merungwe, was assaulted and killed, and all his food, cattle, and grain used.  Mirambo remains alone.  He has, it seems, inspired terror in the Arab and Banyamwezi mind by his charms, and he will probably be allowed to retreat north by flight, and the war for a season close; if so, we shall get plenty of Banyamwezi pagazi, and be off, for which I earnestly long and pray.

13th June, 1872.—­Sangara, one of Mr. Stanley’s men, returned from Bagamoio, and reports that my caravan is at Ugogo.  He arrived to-day, and reports that Stanley and the American Consul acted like good fellows, and soon got a party of over fifty off, as he heard while at Bagamoio, and he left.  The main body, he thinks, are in Ugogo.  Hecame on with the news, but the letters were not delivered to him.  I do most fervently thank the good Lord of all for His kindness to me through these gentlemen.  The men will come here about the end of this month.  Bombay happily pleaded sickness as an excuse for not re-engaging, as several others have done.  He saw that I got a clear view of his failings, and he could not hope to hoodwink me.