A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



previous evening, and the remaining bale was given 

 to a poor old man who might have been any imagin- 

 able age. He carried it to Mkushi without a 

 murmur, and without giving a minute's trouble, but 

 by this time his condition was so feeble that we 

 thought it better to send him home in charge of 

 another man who had joined us on the road, but 

 who was no longer required. 



We had been advised to take the two loads of 

 salt with us, as it was possible that after crossing 

 the Wulangulu Hills calico would not be accepted 

 as currency. The salt had been sent after us from 

 Mpika, and we left it in charge of the two lads who 

 had brought it. 



We were obliged to return three boys to Mpika, 

 who were, in our opinion, too young and weakly- 

 looking to undertake the journey; and to replace 

 them by two men taken from my machilla team 



and one from A 's until such time as we could 



procure others. 



By 6 A.M. all was ready, and we got under way; 

 poor John in a state of deep despondency. I went 



ahead, but A abandoned all idea of shooting 



for the day, and remained behind to see to the 

 porters, and very fortunate it was he did so. After 

 the first few miles such scenes occurred as we had 

 never previously experienced in all our travels. 

 The porters lagged behind, refused to keep in the 

 places assigned them, were impertinent to John, 

 sat down to rest when and where they wished, 

 refused to go on when told to do so; and in many 

 cases, from sheer physical incapacity, remained 



