The response was not long coming, for UWj
sprang up and said, “ Oh, master, don't tad
more; I am ready now. See, I will only buckle
on my belt, and I shall start at once, and J thing will stop me. I will follow on the tract
like a leopard.”
“And I am one,” said Kacheche. “ Leave j
alone, master. If there are white men at End
bomma, we will find them out. We will walk, and
walk, and when we cannot walk we will crawl.”
^ Leave off talking, men,” said Muini Pemba
and allow others to speak, won’t you? Hear
me, my master. I am your servant. I will outwalk
the two. I will carry the letter, and plant
it before the eyes of the white men.”
“ I will go too, sir,” said Robert.
_ “Good. It is just as I should-wish it; but,
obert, you cannot follow these three men. You
will break down, my boy.”
“ Oh, we will carry him if he breaks down"!
said Uledi. “Won’t we, Kacheche?”
“ Inshallah!” responded Kacheche decisively.
We must have Robert along with us, otherwise
the white men won’t understand us.”
Early the next day the two guides appeared,
ut the whole of the morning was wasted in
endeavouring to induce them to set off. Uledi
waxed impatient, and buckled on his accoutrements,
drawing his belt so tight about his waist
that it was perfectly painful to watch him, and
r A u g . 4, i 8771 A R E S P IT E FR OM D E A T H . 2 1 1 [ Nsanda. J
said, “ Give us the letters, master; we will not
[wait for the pagans. Our people will be dead
before we start. Regard them, will you! They
are sprawling about the camp without any life
in them. Goee— Go-ee— Go-ee.” Finally, at
noon, the guides and messengers departed in
company.
Meanwhile a bale of cloth and a sack of beads
[were distributed, and the strongest and youngest
men despatched abroad in all directions to forage
for food. Late in the afternoon they arrived in
camp weakened and dispirited, having, despite
all efforts, obtained but a few bundles of the
miserable ground-nuts and sufficient sweet potatoes
to give three small ones to each person,
though they had given twenty times their value
-for each one. The heartless reply of the spoiled
[aborigines was, “Wait for the zandu, or market,
which was to be held in two days at Nsanda,
[for, as amongst the Babwende, each district has
i its respective days for marketing. Still what we
! had obtained was a respite from death; and, on
i the morning of the 5th, the people were prepared
to drag their weary limbs nearer to the expected
relief.
Our route lay along the crest of a ridge, until
we arrived at a narrow alluvial valley, in
which the chief village of the Nsanda district is
situate, amidst palms, ground-nut and cassava
gardens, and small patches of beans, peas, and