I loaded his two-pounder with ball, and grape, and small slugs of iron, and advised him not to fire it until Mirambo’s people were at his gates.

About 4 p.m.  I heard that Mirambo had deported himself to Kazima, a place north-west of Tabora a couple of miles.

August 26th.—­The Arabs sallied out this morning to attack Kazima, but refrained, because Mirambo asked for a day’s grace, to eat the beef he had stolen from them.  He has asked them impudently to come to-morrow morning, at which time he says he will give them plenty of fighting,

Kwihara is once more restored to a peaceful aspect, and fugitives no longer throng its narrow limits in fear and despair.

August 27th.—­Mirambo retreated during the night; and when the Arabs went in force to attack his village of Kazima, they found it vacant.

The Arabs hold councils of war now-a-days—­battle meetings, of which they seem to be very fond, but extremely slow to act upon.  They were about to make friends with the northern Watuta, but Mirambo was ahead of them.  They had talked of invading Mirambo’s territory the second time, but Mirambo invaded Unyanyembe with fire and sword, bringing death to many a household, and he has slain the noblest of them all.

The Arabs spend their hours in talking and arguing, while the Ujiji and Karagwah roads are more firmly closed than ever.  Indeed many of the influential Arabs are talking of returning to Zanzibar; saying, “Unyanyembe is ruined.”

Meanwhile, with poor success, however, perceiving the impossibility of procuring Wanyamwezi pagazis, I am hiring the Wangwana renegades living in Unyanyembe to proceed with me to Ujiji, at treble prices.  Each man is offered 30 doti, ordinary hire of a carrier being only from 5 to 10 doti to Ujiji.  I want fifty men.  I intend to leave about sixty or seventy loads here under charge of a guard.  I shall leave all personal baggage behind, except one small portmanteau.

August 28th.—­No news to-day of Mirambo.  Shaw is getting strong again.

Sheikh bin Nasib called on me to-day, but, except on minor philosophy, he had nothing to say.

I have determined, after a study of the country, to lead a flying caravan to Ujiji, by a southern road through northern Ukonongo and Ukawendi.  Sheikh bin Nasib has been informed to-night of this determination.

August 29th.—­Shaw got up to-day for a little work.  Alas! all my fine-spun plans of proceeding by boat over the Victoria N’Yanza, thence down the Nile, have been totally demolished, I fear, through this war with Mirambo—­this black Bonaparte.  Two months have been wasted here already.  The Arabs take such a long time to come to a conclusion.  Advice is plentiful, and words are as numerous as the blades of grass in our valley; all that is wanting indecision.  The Arabs’ hope and stay is dead—­Khamis bin Abdullah is no more.  Where are the other warriors of whom the Wangwana and Wanyamwezi bards sing?  Where is mighty Kisesa—­great Abdullah bin Nasib?  Where is Sayd, the son of Majid?  Kisesa is in Zanzibar, and Sayd, the son of Majid, is in Ujiji, as yet ignorant that his son has fallen in the forest of Wilyankuru.