In Wildest Africa -^ 



Thus my Arab informant talked a lonL;' time with me. 

 He told me much that was interesting and much that was 

 new to me. He told me of caravans that had been 

 massacred, cut oft" to the last man by the natives in remote 

 districts: and again of caravans that had been not one or 

 two, — no, as long as six years on the march, that had 

 buried a lot of ivory and gradually got it down to the coast. 

 Time counts f jr nothing here, for the people — that Is to say, 

 those who are not slaves — receive only the one lump sum 

 agreed upon tor the journey, no matter how long it lasts. 

 His friends, with c;iravans mustering many hundreds, had 

 carried hundreds and hundreds of barrels of gunpowder 

 into the interior, they had sought everywhere for new 

 districts abounding in ivory, and the result had been the 

 slaughter of the ele[)hants on all sides. Nevertheless he 

 had not much to tell me of men having enriched themselves 

 b\- this trade. However, this did not apjjly to the traders 

 on the coast, who advanced the money. These lent money 

 to the caravan leaders, who went into the interior, at the 

 high rate of interest usual in the East, and thus became 

 rich men. They had, of course, also many losses. It 

 happened not seldom that one of their debtors was "lost" 

 in the interior, which means that he simply did not come 

 back, but chose to pass the rest ot his life in exile. And 

 in that case it would l)e a difficult matter lor the creditor 

 to take proceedings against him. 



'J'hen my informant told me how many ol the elephiuit 

 hunters still living had been carrying on their business 

 already for a long time before any !•". uropc^ans whatever 

 thought of making a prolonged stay in the country. He 



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