“How many pagazis, or carriers?

“How many soldiers?”

“How much cloth?”

“How many beads?”

“How much wire?”

“What kinds of cloth are required for the different tribes?”

Ever so many questions to myself brought me no clearer the exact point I wished to arrive at.  I scribbled over scores of sheets of paper, made estimates, drew out lists of material, calculated the cost of keeping one hundred men for one year, at so many yards of different kinds of cloth, etc.  I studied Burton, Speke, and Grant in vain.  A good deal of geographical, ethnological, and other information appertaining to the study of Inner Africa was obtainable, but information respecting the organization of an expedition requisite before proceeding to Africa, was not in any book.  The Europeans at Zanzibar knew as little as possible about this particular point.  There was not one white man at Zanzibar who could tell how many dotis a day a force of one hundred men required to buy food for one day on the road.  Neither, indeed, was it their business to know.  But what should I do at all, at all?  This was a grand question.

I decided it were best to hunt up an Arab merchant who had been engaged in the ivory trade, or who was fresh from the interior.

Sheikh Hashid was a man of note and of wealth in Zanzibar.  He had himself despatched several caravans into the interior, and was necessarily acquainted with several prominent traders who came to his house to gossip about their adventures and gains.  He was also the proprietor of the large house Capt.  Webb occupied; besides, he lived across the narrow street which separated his house from the Consulate.  Of all men Sheikh Hashid was the man to be consulted, and he was accordingly invited to visit me at the Consulate.

From the grey-bearded and venerable-looking Sheikh, I elicited more information about African currency, the mode of procedure, the quantity and quality of stuffs I required, than I had obtained from three months’ study of books upon Central Africa; and from other Arab merchants to whom the ancient Sheikh introduced me, I received most valuable suggestions and hints, which enabled me at last to organize an Expedition.

The reader must bear in mind that a traveller requires only that which is sufficient for travel and exploration that a superfluity of goods or means will prove as fatal to him as poverty of supplies.  It is on this question of quality and quantity that the traveller has first to exercise his judgment and discretion.