Second, the Masika, or rainy season, would soon be on me, which, if it caught me at Bagamoyo, would prevent my departure until it was over, which meant a delay of forty days, and exaggerated as the rains were by all men with whom I came in contact, it rained every day for forty days without intermission.  This I knew was a thing to dread; for I had my memory stored with all kinds of rainy unpleasantnesses.  For instance, there was the rain of Virginia and its concomitant horrors—­wetness, mildew, agues, rheumatics, and such like; then there were the English rains, a miserable drizzle causing the blue devils; then the rainy season of Abyssinia with the flood-gates of the firmament opened, and an universal down-pour of rain, enough to submerge half a continent in a few hours; lastly, there was the pelting monsoon of India, a steady shut-in-house kind of rain.  To which of these rains should I compare this dreadful Masika of East Africa?  Did not Burton write much about black mud in Uzaramo?  Well, a country whose surface soil is called black mud in fine weather, what can it be called when forty days’ rain beat on it, and feet of pagazis and donkeys make paste of it?  These were natural reflections, induced by the circumstances of the hour, and I found myself much exercised in mind in consequence.

Ali bin Salim, true to his promise, visited my camp on the morrow, with a very important air, and after looking at the pile of cloth bales, informed me that I must have them covered with mat-bags.  He said he would send a man to have them measured, but he enjoined me not to make any bargain for the bags, as he would make it all right.

While awaiting with commendable patience the 140 pagazis promised by Ali bin Salim we were all employed upon everything that thought could suggest needful for crossing the sickly maritime region, so that we might make the transit before the terrible fever could unnerve us, and make us joyless.  A short experience at Bagamoya showed us what we lacked, what was superfluous, and what was necessary.  We were visited one night by a squall, accompanied by furious rain.  I had $1,500 worth of pagazi cloth in my tent.  In the morning I looked and lo! the drilling had let in rain like a sieve, and every yard of cloth was wet.  It occupied two days afterwards to dry the cloths, and fold them again.  The drill-tent was condemned, and a No. 5 hemp-canvas tent at onto prepared.  After which I felt convinced that my cloth bales, and one year’s ammunition, were safe, and that I could defy the Masika.

In the hurry of departure from Zanzibar, and in my ignorance of how bales should be made, I had submitted to the better judgment and ripe experience of one Jetta, a commission merchant, to prepare my bales for carriage.  Jetta did not weigh the bales as he made them up, but piled the Merikani, Kaniki, Barsati, Jamdani, Joho, Ismahili, in alternate layers, and roped the same into bales.  One or two pagazis