of Maravi to hunt in the north. No sign of any hunting
party had come under my notice since we left Deuka’s.
The country was so vast, and as I had seen no elephant
spoor, I came to the conclusion that any or all of such parties
must be much farther north—nearer the lake perhaps.
Long reveries and meditations upon future plans only
intensified the dispiriting sense of helplessness. The spell
was suddenly broken.
“ Amigo! ”
At the door of my hut, as though he had risen from the
earth, stood a man. I heard his salutation, but the darkness
prevented me from seeing his face.
What stroke of fortune was this? At once I tore out
some loose straw thatch, and kindling up the fire invited
the stranger to enter.
He was a small man, with a somewhat dark complexion,
and proved to be Eustaquio da Costa, a Portuguese elephant
hunter, who had just returned from a hunt, and having
heard of my arrival came immediately to see me.
. The elephant hunter was astounded to find a white man
in such a solitary state, and told me he never travelled
without a strongly-armed escort. He had just arrived from
another town of Chikuse’s, about half a day’s journey further
north. Elephants were scarce, and therefore the members
of his party were ranging far inland and northward.
When I told da Costa of the course I had travelled, he said
I had run a great risk, especially as the Makanga people
were a bad. and treacherous race, who robbed and murdered
parties with ivory and other produce. As he advanced
through a country he sent men ahead, while he followed in
rear with a hundred armed retainers.
Then I explained to him my extraordinary position, and
described what I had gone through at the other towns in
this country, telling also of the alarming experiences of the
previous night, of the beer-drinking turmoil, of the start I
had got by the report of a gun in the next hut, followed
by the carrying out of a dead body in the morning, and of
the visit of the fat dame. Why did she come to me? was
a natural question. Last of all, I told of my reverie upon
plans to reach the lake alone.
The arrangement now made was that I was to remain in
my quarters until he could hear what was going on.
“ Once,” he said, “ their suspicions are aroused, it is
almost an impossibility to remove them, or convince the
people of good intentions. I will get some men to bring
on the things you have left at Deuka’s with the headman.
After this marvellous encounter, all past troubles vanished
from my mind like a flash. Surely I would now manage to
get on, seeing that I could speak!
On the following day my friend told me what had
transpired. The king said that on the day I had come
I had brought clouds. I was accused trf Tieing -aiipy. My
presence was ominous of evil. They insisted that I was
not a man; that the race from which I had sprung had no
home, and no country, but were wanderers on the face of
the earth. Illusion has nothing too extravagant for
these people’s conjectures as to the existence of the white
man.
One thing which they could not understand was that
I came without a following of men. This was thought
a marvel.
During the following days my friend da Costa did everything
that lay in his power to help and explain away the
many suspicions and awkward surmises which filled the
king’s mind with regard to me.
My friend the fat lady, who turned out to be the king’s