continuous shuffling of hurried feet passing to and fro along
the deck. A strong odour of coffee pervaded everywhere.
Numbers of Portuguese residents crowded into the cabin
to see their friends off, and high above the din of many
voices rose the doleful strains of a tuneless man trying to
warble about something that was going to happen,* Some
day, some day! ” Who but an Englishman would have the
boldness to attempt such an infliction ?
My friend M. Giraud was about the last to leave for the
shore He still had some weeks to wait for a steamer to
Zanzibar. In bidding him good-bye I could not help
thinking of how admirably we had agreed, and how glad
I would be at any time to meet such a companion again.
For m Giraud I found all the attributes that link a friendship
f a s t- a bright companion, an unselfish sportsman, and
a trusty comrade.
The wind twanged the chords of the rigging, which
sighed the old ^Eolian tune, soon to be overcome by the
harsh roar of steam coming from the funnel. Signal-bells
rang from the bridge to the engine-room. Then I heard
cracking sounds, as link after link of the cable was taken
m by the rattling capstan. At last the anchor was weighed,
and we were outward bound.
With such sounds and scenes of the modern world in my
ears, the charms and reverses of the wandering life became
the treasures of memory. Farewell to the rough roving in
the home of the black man! Farewell, land of the equatorial
sun! Thy scenes have vanished, but their picture is
indelible on my memory, intertwined amidst the leaves of
sadness and the flowers of hope. Often again will I think
of thee when in cloudy climes the sun’s face is veiled by
filmy fogs which rise from heated cities in the white man’s
home ! The fascination of thy woods and thy mountains
will then re-awaken to vivify my veins. I will forget all
troubles with thy people, and wander once more, like them,
a free son of Nature. Thy forest plains of stately palms
will be before me, and thy wealth of animal life. Thine are
beauteous adornments of a saddened face, which I will ever
tli inV of as I linger on the memories of eventful days.
Perils and adventures, mental and physical suffering,
doubts and apprehensions are past, and these troubles are
troubles no more.
So in spite of the maze of dilemmas through which it
has been my lot to emerge successfully, I look back upon
the past, as a whole, with not a little pleasure, for the retrospect
brings something more than the mere satisfaction of
having made the journey I intended to make, and I am
confident that whoever follows my wandering footsteps in
Africa will find that the tribes among whom I moved, and
the chiefs with whom I dealt, will not treat them worse
through my having been before them.
. This narrative may show what difficulties a single European
without reliable followers has to encounter while
travelling in the remote central regions of Africa. Does it
not, however, say much for the negro that such a journey
was possible ? I have heard many bad things said of him,
but I found out that he has a vast deal of 'good in his
composition. True he has deserted me frequently, and left
me in awkward dilemmas, but he has treated me kindly as
well. I say, with the sincerest satisfaction, that from the
time I left the Cape of Good Hope until I reached the
shores of Lake Nyassa I was never robbed of a single bead
nor a yard of cloth, although the goods bank as well as the
banker were entirely at his mercy. I never barricaded a
door, preferring to show absolute indifference to evil influences.
Every night afforded opportunities for attack.