ABSTRACT
Nov. 6th. This morning the men turned up readily enough & I issued rifles to them & gave them out their loads 17 in number putting two men to each load so that they can travel quickly. Parke had an inspection of all the sick Stanley had left behind & pronounced 8 of them fit for marching, they will accompany me. I gave out Indian com to the men who had gone down to the boat with me, to the sailors & to the 8 men Parke was sending, to those men who did not come down to get the boat up I gave no corn. It took some time getting all this done & I did not leave the village till 12 o'clock. I went ahead & Parke promised to follow in the rear to some distance to see all the men safely out of the village. I reached Stanleys first camp in three hours & decided to stay there the night & do two of his marches tomorrow if possible, I did not like to press the people too much on the first day particularly as the men Parke is sending on are far from strong yet. Stanley's camp was by some ruined native huts & I got my tent pitched & the loads put inside in good time. I felt sorry to part from Nelson & Parke, I had just relieved Nelson from starvation & I should see neither he nor Parke for many months to come-perhaps never. We had lived & worked together & had been thrown closely into one anothers society for the last nine months & had always got on excellently well it is melancholy too that the Expedition should be broken up in this way.
