Chapter 2: Africa at last!
Eventually, after many days and nights, I heard a sailor shout "Africa, Africa ahead - all passengers and famous explorers be ready to leave the ship soon".Next thing there was a slight bump as the big ship anchored at the dock. There was lots of shouting and sailors running about as the ropes to the ship were thrown to the helpers on the dock and the ship was tied tightly to the landing dock.
The Captain let down the stairs from the ship and we all started to walk off into the exciting new world of Africa.
The King had arranged for 10 elephants to be at the dock to carry all my special equipment and provisions for the diamond search in the jungle. The elephants were magnificent, all covered in gold and silver rugs with red head-dresses. They were very grand indeed. They wondered what they were doing there, carrying my luggage instead of famous Princes and Princesses like they would normally do. They trumpeted and snorted and stamped the ground as if to say - "what ever next - us carrying luggage indeed!" They made such a commotion that the chief elephant keeper came out from the luggage office and went up to the leading elephant, whose name was Tshambo and whispered in his ear. He told him about why I was there and how it was such an important job to find diamonds for the King's new jewels and that only the Royal Elephants could be trusted to carry the luggage safely.
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