CH. XV] BLACK SOLDIERS 437 



foot of the bold pyramidal hill of the same name, we 

 marched two days west, stopping short of the River 

 Koda, where we knew the game drank. Now and then 

 we came on Hower-bearing bushes, of marvellously 

 sweet scent, like gardenias. It was the height of the 

 dry season ; the country was covered with coarse grass 

 and a scrub growth of nearly leaHess thorn-trees, usually 

 growing rather wide apart, occasionally close enough 

 together to look almost like a forest. There were a 

 few palms, euphorbias, and very rarely scattered clumps 

 of withered bamboo, and also bright green trees with 

 rather thick leaves and bean-pods, on which we after- 

 ward found that the eland fed. 



The streams we crossed were dry torrent beds, sandy 

 or rocky ; in two or three of them were pools of stagnant 

 water, while better water could be obtained by digging 

 in the sand alongside. A couple of hours after reaching 

 each camp everything was in order, and Ali had made 

 a fire of some slivers of wood and boiled our tea ; and 

 our two meals, breakfast and dinner, were taken at a 

 table in the open, under a tree. 



We had with us seven black soldiers of the Belgian 

 native troops, under a corporal : they came from every 

 quarter of the Congo, but several of them could speak 

 Swahili, the Inigna franca of Middle ^Africa, and so 

 Kermit could talk freely with them. Tliese black 

 soldiers behaved excellently, and the attitude, both 

 toward them and toward us, of the natives in the various 

 villages we came across was totally incompatible with 

 any theory that these natives had suffered from any 

 maltreatment ; they behaved just like the natives in 

 British territory. There iiad to be tlie usual parleys 

 with the chiefs of the villages to obtain food for the 

 soldiers (we carried the posho for our own men), and 



