my double eyes, as they chose to term them, that it
became impossible for me to wear them. • I therefore
pocketed the instrument, closed my eyes, and allowed
the donkey I was riding to be quietly pulled along.
The evil effects of granting an indulgence to those who
cannot appreciate it, was more obvious every day. To
secure speed and contentment, I had indulged the
pagazis by hiring double numbers, and giving ■each
only half a recognised burden; but what has been the
return ? Yesterday the pagazis stopped at the eighth
mile, because they said that so large a jungle was in
our front that we could not cross it during daylight.
I disbelieved their story, and gave them to understand,
on submitting to their request, that I was sure
their trick for stopping me would turn to their own
disadvantage; for if my surmise proved true, as the
morrow would show, I should give them no more indulgence,
and especially no more meat. On our arrival
to-day there was a great hubbub amongst t h p.m)
because I ordered the Jemadar and Kirangozi, with
many of their principal men, to sit in state before me;
when I gave a cloth to the soldiers to buy a goat with,
and, turning to the Kirangozi, told him I was sorry I
was obliged to keep my word of yesterday, and, their
story having proved false, I must depart from the
principle I had commenced upon, of feeding both
parties alike, and now they might feel assured that I
would do nothing further for their comfort until I
could see in them some desire to please me. The
screw was on the tenderest p a r t: a black man’s belly
is his god; and they no sooner found themselves deprived
of their wonted feast, than they clamorously
declared they would be my devoted servants; that
they had come expressly to serve me, and were willing
to do anything I wished. The village chief offered
me a g o a t; but as it came at the last moment before
starting, I declined it.
To-day’s track lay for the first half of the way over
a jungly depression, where we saw ostriches, florikans,
and the small Saltiana antelopes ] but as their shyness
did not allow of an open approach, I amused myself
by shooting partridges. During the remainder of the
way, the caravan threaded between villages and cultivation
lying in small valleys, or crossed over low hills,
accomplishing a total distance of twelve miles. Here
we put up at a village called Ukumbi, occupied by the
Walaswanda tribe.
2d.—We set out at 6 A.M., and travelled thirteen
miles by a tortuous route, sometimes close by the
creek, at other times winding between small hills, the
valleys of which were thickly inhabited by both agricultural
and pastoral people. Here some small perennial
streams, exuding from springs by the base of these
hills, meander through the valleys, and keep all vegetable
life in a constant state of verdant freshness. The
creek still increases in width as it extends northward,
and is studded with numerous small rocky island-hills
covered with brushwood, which, standing out from
the bosom of the deep-blue waters, reminded me of a
voyage I once had in the Grecian Archipelago. The