XIX.] SHAMEFUL BEHAVIOR OF TEADERS. ' 253 



strata of a sort of shale, with occasional outcrops of iron-stone July, 

 (hematite). ^^'^^- 



All the country around was either already burned or burning, 

 and at night the roar of the immense grass fires could be heard 

 for a distance of three or four miles, and the whole sky was 

 lighted up by the blaze. These huge fires often occasion slight 

 partial showers of rain, the enormous updraught causing the 

 warm air to rush to a cooler level, where the moisture is con- 

 densed and falls in the form of rain. 



From Kisimbika we went forward until the 17th of July 

 without any long halts. We camped nightly in the villages, 

 much to the disgust of the natives, who were treated in an over- 

 bearing manner by the traders and their men. Relying on 

 their gunpowder-strength, the traders gave their men nothing 

 with which to purchase food, but told them to steal what they 

 wanted themselves, and also to bring in provisions for their 

 masters. The natives stood aloof, or looked on sullenly while 

 these blackguards robbed their granaries, and their mortars, 

 and other articles of household furniture, to make fires for cook- 

 ing the stolen food. The only ajoproach they made toward com- 

 municating with us was to propose that the caravan should join 

 them in attacking other villages in order to obtain slaves. 



I gave my men extra rations to prevent their thieving, and in 

 two or three cases paid natives who complained of them, and I 

 treated the offenders to a sound flogging to show that I, as an 

 Englishman, had no intention of making my way through the 

 country by means of looting and force. Yet I fear when my 

 back was turned they were fully as bad as the others. Bombay 

 always persisted that they never stole any thing whatever ; but 

 I sometimes heard from Jumah that Bombay himself was not 

 entirely guiltless. 



On July the 18th, we crossed the Lulindi, a broad stream, 

 which must be unfordable in flood. At a height of twenty feet 

 above the water there hung a very cleverly constructed suspen- 

 sion-bridge. Four large cables of creepers were fastened to the 

 trunks of trees, one pair about four feet higher than the other, 

 and to these cables were secured other creepers from tlie tops 

 of the loftiest trees on each side of the stream, while horizontal 

 guys prevented the bridge from swaying about. Across the 



