"
Again he paused, as though overcome by the sadness of his
recollections.
"Did you never hear any more of your wife?" asked Stephen.
"Yes, Mr. Somers; I heard at Zanzibar from a slave whom our mission
bought and freed, that he had seen a white woman who answered to her
description alive and apparently well, at some place I was unable to
identify. He could only tell me that it was fifteen days' journey from
the coast. She was then in charge of some black people, he did not
know of what tribe, who, he believed, had found her wandering in the
bush. He noted that the black people seemed to treat her with the
greatest reverence, although they could not understand what she said.
On the following day, whilst searching for six lost goats, he was
captured by Arabs who, he heard afterwards, were out looking for this
white woman. The day after the man had told me this, he was seized
with inflammation of the lungs, of which, being in a weak state from
his sufferings in the slave gang, he quickly died. Now you will
understand why I was not particularly anxious to revisit Kilwa.
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