232 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



guese surely do the same thing, for wherever I 

 have travelled in your possessions, I have always 

 met with your black soldiers." "That is true," 

 said he, "but still our policy is very different from 

 yours ; for we never employ natives as police or 

 soldiers in their own country ; all the black troops 

 you see in our East African possessions being re- 

 cruited in Angola, and vice versa, and thus all 

 native levies in the Portuguese service are looked 

 upon as foreigners by, and are themselves out of 

 sympathy with, the tribes amongst whom they find 

 themselves." 



After bidding adieu to our host and resuming 

 our journey, we continued to make very good 

 progress, with the help of wind and tide, and 

 although we now and then lost a little time by 

 sticking on a sandbank, we had done so well by 

 sundown that Mr. Wissels expected to make a 

 record run up to his station. During the afternoon 

 we passed a few hippopotamuses and an odd 

 crocodile ; but they were few and far between, and 

 appeared to be very wild and wary. Our luck, 

 however, was not to last, for during the hour which 

 intervened between the setting of the sun and the 

 rising of the moon (which was now but one day 

 beyond the full) the wind veered right round, and 

 commenced to blow fresh and cool from the south. 

 We soon found it impossible to make any further 

 progress, even with the oars, after the sail, which 

 had done us such good service throughout the day, 

 had been lowered ; for the strength of the wind 

 blew us in under the bank. So, yielding to neces- 

 sity, we made our heavy craft fast to a tree for the 

 night, and then, after having made a hasty meal, 

 washed down by a cup of tea, we turned in under 

 our blankets, which were once more spread on the 

 top of the mealie bags. 



On the following morning, just at daybreak, two 



