Chap. VIII. MORE ROBBEETKS. 148 



were brought in, but they had been opened and rifled 

 of half their contents. At this, Ondonga pretended 

 to be in a violent rage with the unknown thieves, 

 and declared in a loud voice that there should be war 

 against those who had dared to rob his white man. 

 For a moment I thought he was sincere, and that, 

 being young, his authority as successor to Olenda 

 was not sufficiently established over his unruly clan 

 to prevent me from being robbed by his subjects. 

 The old slave-chief joined in the well-acted cry of 

 indignation, and actually put spears into the hands 

 of his sons, and bid them go forth with the rest to 

 demand the restitution of my property. They then 

 all hurried out of the place, shouting, cursing, and 

 vowing death to the thieves. 



Next day a portion of the missing things was 

 brought in, but the contents of the principal box, 

 which contained my photographic apparatus, were 

 never made good ; two of the focussing glasses had 

 been taken or destroyed, and also the two black 

 curtains. 



A greater calamity to me than the loss of my pro- 

 perty, and the desertion of several frightened porters 

 which followed, was the illness of my faithful com- 

 panion, Macondai, who had been at last struck down 

 with the small-pox. We could not delay our journey, 

 and I had great reluctance to leave him behind, on 

 many accounts. When we resumed our march he 

 tried to walk with us, but he became so ill that we 

 were forced to come to a stand. I held, as was my 

 custom in cases of difficulty concerning the safety of 

 our party, a palaver with my faithful body-guard, 



