give me four boys to go to the king, as I could not wait
longer; also that my men were very hungry, and that I
would bring back cloth and make her a good present if
she fed them.
“ I will give you boys,” she said, “ but Sakanii is coming :
he will be here this moon ! ”
Then, thought I, there is plenty of time to starve.
“ The women are making beer,” continued the royal
mother; “ and see! there are numbers of people gathering
from Msenga who bring ivory to sell to him. He must
come.”
The old lady then told some of her Msenga slave-women
to carry down meal to my men. Before the sun was half
high I was once more ready to take leave of the party.
Umfana came with me, and leaving the rest of the household
I quitted Chibinga, evidently much to the astonishment
of the inhabitants. A great deal of time had been
lost, and all manner of reports had been circulated,
some of them no doubt with intent to intimidate, but all
of so wild a character as to be beyond description. These
reports never found credence in my mind. At any rate
they had not the effect of checking my purpose. John
informed me that the people had declared that they would
kill Karemba and himself if I did not return. He evidently
thought that I meditated flight.
I took some boys to accompany me for a few miles, in
case I might have the good luck to be able to send some
meat back to the party.
About a couple of miles’ walk brought us to a small
opening which ran for some distance back into the dense
forest. Here I could see that the boys had observed something,
and taking a rapid survey of the ground, I distinguished,
at a distance of about one hundred and eighty
yards, a fine boar standing beside a sow. Their colour so
closely resembled the little scrub which they were vigorously
uprooting that it was by no means easy to get a good “ sight”
on them, and the difficulty was made greater through the
fact of their facing me.
However, as they evidently were startled at something
I concluded to have a try, even at that long range.
Aiming carefully at the head of the boar, I had the
satisfaction of seeing that almost simultaneously with the
crack of “ 0. L. K.” down he fell, to the unbounded delight
of the boys, but greatly to the sow’s discomfort, for she
made two or three circles at her highest speed, giving out
piercing squeals, and then dashing off into the long grass.
At once I was off in hot pursuit; for I had the feeling of
a veritable savage, seeing that my camp was hungry, while
my own little party had a very small supply of meal.
On I sped as quickly as my legs could bear me. I
succeeded in “ winging” the sow, but just then down I
fell suddenly into a deep hole which was covered with the
great folds of forest grass. By the time I got up the sow
had too much of a start, and managed to get off.
Returning to the scene of the boar success, X found the
boys busily engaged in cutting-up. The bullet had indeed
gone straight to the mark, for the beast was shot just
between the eyes, an achievement which delighted the boys
almost as much as it pleased myself, for shots of this kind
were far from being invariably successful. While the cutting-
up was proceeding, I struck out to discover what further
favours of fortune might be in store ; feeling that it would
be a great advantage to be able to send plenty of meat back
to cheer the heart of the disconsolate John, and fill the
hankering voids of himself and his companions.
Hardly had I proceeded a hundred and fifty yards from