I Could Not Save Him
From The Loss, As All Had Been Forewarned; And It Is The Universal Custom
Among
The Makololo and many other tribes to show whatever they may find
to the chief person of their company, and
Make a sort of offer of it to him.
This lad ought to have done so to me; the rest of the party
always observed this custom. I felt annoyed at the imposition,
but the order we invariably followed in crossing a river forced me to submit.
The head of the party remained to be ferried over last;
so, if I had not come to terms, I would have been, as I always was in crossing
rivers which we could not swim, completely in the power of the enemy.
It was but rarely we could get a head man so witless as to cross a river
with us, and remain on the opposite bank in a convenient position
to be seized as a hostage in case of my being caught.
This trick is but one of a number equally dishonorable which are practiced
by tribes that lie adjacent to the more civilized settlements.
The Balonda farther east told us, by way of warning, that many parties
of the more central tribes had at various periods set out, in order
to trade with the white men themselves, instead of through the Mambari,
but had always been obliged to return without reaching their destination,
in consequence of so many pretexts being invented by the tribes
encountered in the way for fining them of their ivory.
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