A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



locomotion is the machilla, for which the paths are 

 just sufficiently wide. 



So soon as we were settled in our comfortable 

 quarters, we had to take steps to ascertain the 

 most suitable hunting-grounds, and collect the best 

 available information as regards the game of the 

 country generally, kudu and sable antelope being 

 our first consideration. 



The Governor, Sir Alfred Sharpe, was away at 

 the time of our arrival in Zomba, but he had sent 

 a letter to meet us at Port Herald, which had already 

 furnished us with valuable data, and we had now 

 the benefit of the advice and experience of the 

 officers of the King's African Rifles, sportsmen all 

 of them, of the officer commanding the Sikhs, and 

 of Mr. Casson, the director of native affairs, a well- 

 known elephant-hunter, who kindly came to see us. 



We had still to engage gun-bearers, see to the 

 packing of the loads, and ascertain exactly how 

 many more porters we should require. We engaged 

 two gun-bearers one who had followed us from 

 Blantyre on the chance of getting the job, and 

 another who was recommended to us locally. The 

 first of these we christened "Yellow Jacket," from 

 the short khaki jacket he wore. Old Saidi, the 

 principal hunter, whose English was limited, always 

 spoke of him as "Bloody Jacket"; he could not 

 manage the word "yellow." "Yellow Jacket" was 

 not at all a bad fellow, but weakly, and nothing of 

 a hunter; we have strong reason to believe that he 

 only joined us in the hope of getting a free trip 

 to Broken Hill, where he expected employment 



32 



