Of my further journey to the coast there is little to tell. We experienced the usual difficulties with the churlish Wagogo, and had to endure hunger, thirst, and fatigue; but the countries through which we passed have been so well and often described by travellers such as Burton, Speke, and Stanley, that the history of our journey to Bagamoyo would possess but little interest.
It was with feelings of joy and gratitude that I again saw the briny waters of the ocean. Still more thankful was I when a few days afterwards I landed at Zanzibar and heard again the English language, to which I had so long been a stranger. Her Majesty’s consul, Colonel Hamerton, congratulated me on being still alive and in good health after so many and so strange adventures and experiences.
Fortunately, a few days after my arrival, the German house of Witt and Company had a small brig which they were going to send home, and which was to touch at various places on the West Coast of Africa to exchange cowries collected on the shores and reefs near Zanzibar for palm oil. With great generosity they gave me a free passage in her, either to Hamburg, whither she was ultimately bound, or, if I preferred it, till such time as I might fall in with an English vessel which would take me to my own country.
We had a favourable voyage to the Bights, and I found that I had not altogether forgotten to be a sailor; but judge of my happiness and delight when just before entering the Old Calabar river we met a brig coming out at whose main-royal masthead flew the familiar black flag with a red diamond, which showed that she was the property of my father.
Captain Schmidt at once hove-to his vessel and lowered a boat, and soon I was again standing on the quarter-deck of the Petrel. My brother was now in command, with Jimmy Duds as his first mate, and their astonishment and joy were great when they at last understood that one they had mourned as dead was alive and again on board the old craft.
WAGOGO WAR-DANCE.
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