CHAP. XVI THE PORTER AND HIS LOAD 307 



the first rule. When he started on his search for Livingstone he 

 was new to Equatorial Africa, and anxious to try new methods 

 of transport. So he took out a light, narrow waggon, which 

 was laden and hauled inland. The waggon, however, was 

 always in mischief, and generally hours behind the rest of 

 the caravan. Stanley at last got tired of it, and one day, 

 when it was unusually far in the rear, he sent back an order 

 that the thing was to be thrown into the jungle, and the men 

 with it were to come on as quickly as possible. Hours passed 

 and they did not appear. So Stanley marched back and met 

 the stragglers, led by the strongest man staggering along with 

 the waggon, axle, wheels, and all complete, upon his head. 

 The porter pleaded that he could not leave his load, and that 

 it was easier to carry it thus. But this was such a rcditctio ad 

 absiirdujii of wheeled traffic, that the waggon was thrown on 

 one side and there abandoned. 



On Kenya I had a somewhat similar experience, when 

 a porter, not by any means one of my best men (in fact 

 one of the worst), nearly sacrificed his life in the effort 

 to save his load. He had been caught in the snowstorm 

 that broke upon us, the day of our arrival at our camp 

 above the forests. He could not drag his load up the steep 

 slope that led to the camp, and he would not go on without it. 

 It was a mere matter of etiquette. The load would have been 

 all right if he had left it, and there were no natives to steal it ; 

 but it was against the porter's religion to leave his load, and he 

 sat upon it. After an hour's search I found him, half covered 

 in snow, lying on his load, nearly frozen to death. A little 

 brandy revived him, but he was too weak to stand, and I had 

 to carry him up to camp. Next morning when he was better, 

 but while I was still suffering from the irritation of having to 

 hunt for him in the snowstorm, I told him he was a fool to 

 have stopped there, and that he ought to have left his load and 

 come on when he could have done so. " How could I leave 

 my load without my master's order ? " was the man's reproach- 

 ful reply. Such is the stuff of which a good Zanzibari is made. 



The regulation load which the Zanzibari is supposed to 

 carry is 60 lbs. Many of the missionaries think this excessive, 

 and refuse to allow any of their men to be hired, unless a 

 promise be given that they shall not be required to carry more 



