Mpika to Kopas 



Next morning Kopa arrived soon after dawn, 

 with quite a number of men, all anxious to accom- 

 pany us to Broken Hill. We engaged ten of the 

 best-looking amongst them, two of whom joined my 

 machilla team in place of two I did not like. 



In consequence of this welcome addition to our 

 numbers we were able to dispense with the services 

 of four undesirables, and should have dismissed 

 more of them but for the fact that we had, 

 unfortunately, lodged their wages in advance at 

 Mpika ; a foolish thing to have done, for though 

 it was calculated to save us some trouble at the 

 end of our journey, it placed us very much in the 

 hands of our men, who seemed to think that they 

 would get their money regardless of their behaviour, 

 during the march. Natives on reaching the end of 

 their journey are apt to spend the greater part of 

 their wages in the native stores in place of returning 

 with it to their villages, and for this reason officials 

 are glad to receive the money in advance and pay 

 the men on their return. Mr. Gordon's (of Lilongwe) 

 system was a good one. He asked us, in place of 

 paying the men, to send him back a cheque for 

 their wages by the capitao he had kindly lent us 

 to look after them, and this we did. As I am on 

 the subject of porters I will anticipate the end of 

 our story by saying here that Kopa's men behaved 

 admirably throughout the trip, and that after the 

 departure of the six undesirables the conduct of the 

 Mpika boys showed a marked improvement. 



'83 



