His reply was, Mabruki had told a lie as black as his face.  He had never said anything approaching to such a thing.  He was willing to become my slave—­to become a pagazi himself.  But here I stopped the voluble Ali, and informed him that I could not think of employing him in the capacity of a pagazi, neither could I find it in my heart to trouble Seyd Burghash to write a direct letter to him, or to require of a man who had deceived me once, as Ali bin Salim had, any service of any nature whatsoever.  It would be better, therefore, if Ali bin Salim would stay away from my camp, and not enter it either in person or by proxy.

I had lost fifteen days, for Jemadar Sadur, at Kaole, had never stirred from his fortified house in that village in my service, save to pay a visit, after the receipt of the Sultan’s letter.  Naranji, custom-house agent at Kaoie, solely under the thumb of the great Ludha Damji, had not responded to Ludha’s worded request that he would procure pagazis, except with winks, nods, and promises, and it is but just stated how I fared at the hands of Ali bin Salim.  In this extremity I remembered the promise made to me by the great merchant of Zanzibar—­Tarya Topan—­a Mohammedan Hindi—­that he would furnish me with a letter to a young man named Soor Hadji Palloo, who was said to be the best man in Bagamoyo to procure a supply of pagazis.

I despatched my Arab interpreter by a dhow to Zanzibar, with a very earnest request to Capt.  Webb that he would procure from Tarya Topan the introductory letter so long delayed.  It was the last card in my hand.

On the third day the Arab returned, bringing with him not only the letter to Soor Hadji Palloo, but an abundance of good things from the ever-hospitable house of Mr. Webb.  In a very short time after the receipt of his letter, the eminent young man Soor Hadji Palloo came to visit me, and informed me he had been requested by Tarya Topan to hire for me one hundred and forty pagazis to Unyanyembe in the shortest time possible.  This he said would be very expensive, for there were scores of Arabs and Wasawabili merchants on the look out for every caravan that came in from the interior, and they paid 20 doti, or 80 yards of cloth, to each pagazi.  Not willing or able to pay more, many of these merchants had been waiting as long as six months before they could get their quota.  “If you,” continued he, “desire to depart quickly, you must pay from 25 to 40 doti, and I can send you off before one month is ended.  “In reply, I said, “Here are my cloths for pagazis to the amount of $1,750, or 3,500 doti, sufficient to give one hundred and forty men 25 doti each.  The most I am willing to pay is 25 doti:  send one hundred and forty pagazis to Unyanyembe with my cloth and wire, and I will make your heart glad with the richest present you have ever received.”  With a refreshing naivete, the “young man” said he did not want any present, he would get me my quota of pagazis, and then I could tell the “Wasungu” what a good “young man” he was, and consequently the benefit he would receive would be an increase of business.  He closed his reply with the astounding remark that he had ten pagazis at his house already, and if I would be good enough to have four bales of cloth, two bags of beads, and twenty coils of wire carried to his house, the pagazis could leave Bagamoyo the next day, under charge of three soldiers.