Note 1 — Chapter I · WE QUIT ZANZIBAR ISLAND IN DIGNIFIED STYLE.

The sum was wholly inadequate. M. Erhardt has, I have been told, expended as much on a week’s march from Pangani Town to Fuga. The smallest of Wasawahili pedlars would hardly deem an outfit of 300 dollars sufficient. M. Erhardt was, even according to his own reduced ideas of distance, to march with twenty followers 400 miles, and to explore a lake 300 miles in breadth and of unknown length. In 1802, when cloth and beads were twice their present value in Africa, the black Pombeiros sent by M. Da Costa, superintendent of the “Cassangi Factory,” carried with them for the necessary expenses and presents, goods to the value of nearly 500l. M. Erhardt’s estimate was highly injurious to future travellers: either he knew the truth, and he should have named at once a reasonable estimate, or he was ignorant of the subject, and he should have avoided it. The consequence of his proposal was simply this:—With 5000l. instead of 1000l., the limited sum of the Government grant, the East African Expedition could have explored the whole central area; nothing but the want of supplies caused their return at the time when, after surmounting sickness, hardship, and want of discipline amongst the party, they were ready to push to the extreme end.