18 THE PLEISTOCENE AGE [ch. i 



lines, the first containing the fifteen askaris, the second 

 the porters with their head-men. The askaris were 

 uniformed, each in a red fez, a blue blouse, and white 

 knickerbockers, and each carrying his rifle and belt. 

 The porters were chosen from several different tribes or 

 races, to minimize the danger of combination in the 

 event of mutiny. 



Here and there in East Africa one can utilize ox- 

 waggons or pack-trains of donkeys ; but for a consider- 

 able expedition it is still best to use a safari of native 

 porters, of the type by which the commerce and ex- 

 ploration of the country have always been carried on. 

 The backbone of such a safari is generally composed 

 of Swahili, the coast men, negroes who have acquired 

 the Moslem religion, together with a partially Arabi- 

 cized tongue and a strain of Arab blood from the Arab 

 warriors and traders who have been dominant in the 

 coast towns for so many centuries. It was these Swa- 

 hili trading caravans, under Arab leadership, which, in 

 tlieir quest for ivory and slaves, trod out the routes 

 which the early white explorers followed. Without 

 their work as a preliminary, the work of the white 

 explorers could not have been done ; and it was the 

 Swahili porters themselves who rendered this work 

 itself possible. To this day every hunter, trader, mis- 

 sionary, or explorer must use either a Swahili safari or 

 one modelled on the Swahili basis. The part played by 

 the white-topped ox-waggon in the history of South 

 Africa, and by the camel caravan in North Africa, has 

 been played in middle Africa by the files of strong, 

 patient, childlike savages, who have borne the burdens 

 of so many masters and employers hither and thither, 

 through and across, the dark heart of the continent. 



Equatorial Africa is in most places none too healthy 



