A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



question arise, readily recognize the traveller's 

 necessity. All the same, he is in a dilemma — if 

 he fails to maintain reasonable discipline, his 

 caravan will become a bear-garden, and the 

 security not only of his goods but of his person 

 may easily be endangered ; if, on the other hand, 

 he inflicts corporal punishment, he is committing a 

 technically illegal action, which no one wishes to do. 



In North- East Rhodesia the difficulty is very 

 apparent, as the bomas are few and far between. 

 From the time we left Mpika till we reached 

 Broken Hill — a matter of six weeks — we were 

 never within two days of a boma, and when at 

 Musiro the nearest boma was at Serenje, sixty 

 miles off. 



But bad cases of assault, especially attacks on 

 superiors, must be punished by flogging, in the 

 interest of the personal safety of every member of the 

 caravan. The punishment should only be inflicted 

 after a regular investigation, and the executioner 

 should be a man of position in the caravan other 

 than the man assaulted. All other offences which 

 necessitate drastic punishment are best punished by 

 dismissal. After the first week or so the mere 

 threat of dismissal is a very effective weapon in the 

 traveller s hands. 



Early morning of the 19th saw us on the march 

 following the left bank of the Mlembo river ; here a 

 wide stream running between high banks. The 

 scenery on both sides of the river was very pretty, 

 forest alternating with meadow-like land, in which 

 numbers of puku were running about. Two of these 



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