A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



fortunately, was present, and knew exactly what to 

 to do. He scarified the place until the blood came, 

 inserted some permanganate crystals in the wound 

 and bandaged the leg tightly above the knee. John 

 was then given a strong dose of raw whisky and 

 sent off to bed. He slept well, and though his foot 

 was much swollen, was not otherwise greatly the 

 worse next day. Only a short time before I had 

 been walking about on the same ground in shoes, 

 which was an imprudent thing to do. Had I been 

 the victim I should hardly have come off so easily ; 

 it was a narrow escape. 



During the afternoon, a Portuguese gentleman, 

 who spoke excellent English, arrived, on his way to 

 the District in Mozambique territory, of which he 

 was Resident, so that we passed a delightful evening. 

 Our host's description ^of the country, its sport and 

 inhabitants, was most entertaining as well as in- 

 structive, he being a noted and experienced elephant 

 hunter. 



Next morning we were pretty busy. Fourteen 

 of the porters who had come with us from Blantyre, 

 whose homes were in this neighbourhood, had to be 

 paid off, and to replace them we had to take on four- 

 teen new ones who had been recruited for us at the 

 Boma. John's foot was very swollen, and he was not 

 at his best, so that we had ourselves to superintend 

 the making up of the loads, and had also to give out 

 the advance of wages which many of the men 

 required. However, everything was ready by noon, 

 and we started off the caravan to march to a suitable 

 camping-ground about eight miles distant on the 



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