What wonderful things they make! Look at their
tents, their guns, their time-pieces, their clothes, and that
little rolling thing (the cart) which carries more than five
men, - -que!"
On the 10th, recovered from the excessive strain of the last march,
the caravan marched out of Msuwa, accompanied by the hospitable
villagers as far as their stake defence, receiving their unanimous
"Kwaheris." Outside the village the march promised to be less
arduous than between Imbiki and Msuwa. After crossing a beautiful
little plain intersected by a dry gully or mtoni, the route led by
a few cultivated fields, where the tillers greeted us with one grand
unwinking stare, as if fascinated.
Soon after we met one of those sights common in part of the world,
to wit a chain slave-gang, bound east. The slaves did not appear to
be in any way down-hearted on the contrary, they seemed imbued with
the philosophic jollity of the jolly servant of Martin Chuzzlewit.
Were it not for their chains, it would have been difficult to discover
master from slave; the physiognomic traits were alike - the mild
benignity with which we were regarded was equally visible on all faces.
The chains were ponderous - they might have held elephants captive;
but as the slaves carried nothing but themselves, their weight could
not have been insupportable.
The jungle was scant on this march, and though in some places the
packs met with accidents, they were not such as seriously to
retard progress.
