give them no cloth, buy them no food/and so • le f them
starve.
Poor souls! they were perhaps weakened by hunger;
but there ore times with the black people whem you are
compelled to show the savage side of your nature. A little
bf it, however, goes a long way. „
On such occasions, a, these I felt , the want ofea good,
faithful follower, a man who could assist; for now I mshed
to keep up with the Landin, who were by thm time some
distance ahead. An uncomfortable suspicion disturbed my
mind, that if I le ftth e Maravi theyiwould drop the things
“ ^ h a d to climb a steep moimtain-slope, on which broken
stones were'strewn in vast quantities on every hand, making
walking very disagreeable as weU as toilsome.
While making the descent towards the Vilange river, one
of the boys fell over a ledge of rock and rolled over the
“ side*hill” By this accident my ohronometer got its coup
* grme, because the stnmbler was carrying it at (he time.
I r ipshecT up'and examined the indispensable instrument,
its 1 * was extinct I t had stopped, and I remember that
I lookedtrith not » ‘little animosity at the boy who h
been « e a s i n g the rugged slopes, thinkmg from my heart
that his ihjimed TvCre fat from being sufBoientiy sevem _
Having»6ressea»the‘narrow river, another affluent of the
B e tqw e I observed lying oh f t . other side of the trail the
baggage which'the "Lamlin h ad gone on with.
W « did this mean? Where, were the men? The
bushes and every hidden nook for »me distance up and
down were searched, but all to no purpose. The missl g
Landin could nowhere be seen. They had fled, leaving us
to And our way as best we could, and introduce ourselves to
the Angonikinjg! -
However, they had' said -pu the previous night, when they
were questioned, Jhat th§ town, could be reached that same
evening by hard marching. Now what would the Maravi
men do ?r. .7 ,[ ,r •;:1T 3 » i
I sat down to await the uoming,,of the .stragglers, of the
party.. There ' they c£ime;t looking, utterly forlorn and
careless. Chibanga, theiij so-called, leader, .was. hobbling
along bearing his weight on<a,.tall stick. .He was the only
one who seemed fairly ,“ jlpne up.”
The others were averse to entering Angoni-land; that
was clearly evident, ^h ey sat down in ai ring around me
and said they wanted to rest. Chibanga and Misiri spoke ;
“ The,Landin, have left pgf Whftt is the white man
going to do ?, ^Ve cannot carry the things.”
I was not long in telling them what was to be done.
“ Yon cannot/’ I said,.“ go back to your own country in
this condition. You are footsore and hungry. The Landin
said that we could reach a town to-night, and we are now
on a trail which must lead to it. I ¿will leave half of your
number .here, while thè resk will go on with me. Then
I will send you hack food as soon as we reach the town.”
Chibanga, I knew, would be quite unable to proceed with
his swollen legs. We had come so slowly in the morning
that we would have to, proceed at a rapid rate if we intended
to reach the town upon that night, assuming .that such
.a place was within any reasonable distance.
The provisions were then collected and given in charge
of the men who were io remain as guardians of the valuables.
Of course they protested, saying that there was not enough
for them to subsist upon should I not return upon the next
day.
, This was an awkward fix. To overcome difficulties I told
.off the men who were , to remain with Chibanga, piling up
G 2