24 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

of our stay in the island, showed us the greatest

kindness. Both rivers, however, proved useless as

waterways, being excessively winding, and only to

be navigated during the close of the rains, and then,

owing to the force of the current, only by a power-

ful steam-launch.

When it became known in Zanzibar that our

party was going up into the interior, we received

visits and applications from various Arab and Hindu

merchants who, knowing that we should require a

considerable amount of barter goods, were anxious

to secure our custom. We obtained tenders from

these men for the goods we required, and chose

that of a Hindu named Isa Sulimani. The piles of

domestics, kaniki (a thin indigo-blue material from

India), prints, coloured cottons and gorgeous gold

fringed cloths from Muscat and the Persian Grulf, were brought to our house by a large body of coolies, and stacked in huge piles in the outhouses opening

into the courtyard. Then ensued a busy scene. The packers, sent by the merchant, laying on the

ground a piece of stout calico, which was to form

a covering for the bale of cloth, placed on it a bolt

of American sheeting, then pieces of kaniki, prints,

etc., then more sheeting, and again kaniki and

cloths, another bolt of merikani concluding the pile ;

this when fastened up forming a bale of the regula-

tion weight, viz., about seventy pounds, and of the

size of a stout bolster. The outer cloth was then