ADVANTAGES OF CANNIBALISM 211 



porters once and for all. Nowadays, owing to the 

 diminished supply of available Suahilis and the 

 expense of bringing them up from the coast, you 

 have to engage your porters for short distances as 

 you go along. They will not pass beyond the 

 bounds of their own country, for the excellent 

 reason that, if they do, they run a very good chance 

 of being captured and eaten on their way home again. 

 The result is that your progress is a series of short 

 journeys, sometimes as little as three days, and 

 seldom longer than a fortnight, interrupted by the 

 delay (generally a matter of days) and the worry 

 involved in constantly hiring a fresh batch of porters. 

 The Belgians have taken advantage of this 

 disinclination to travel on the part of the natives, 

 and I saw a curious instance of it at Stanley 

 Falls. The canoe of the judge at that place was 

 manned by a crew of twelve stalwart natives of the 

 Lower Congo. All of them were murderers, who 

 had been sentenced at Boma to long terms of im- 

 prisonment, and had been sent up the river to 

 Stanleyville. It was impossible for them to attempt 

 to pass through the many strange tribes which lay 

 between them and their own country, but to all 

 intents and purposes they were as free as anybody 

 else, with the difference that they walked up to the 

 prison every evening and locked themselves in. 

 The chiefs of the various districts in the Congo are 

 supposed to be responsible for procuring porters for 

 travellers, but they are often disagreeable people, 



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