A Thousand Miles in a MachiUa 



administered, but before getting it he received a long 

 lecture on the sin of gluttony, with special reference 

 to the still more heinous offence of abandoning a load 

 on the line of march, to the evident satisfaction of 

 Roberti, who was looking on. The machilla capitao, 

 anxious to befriend his compatriot, suggested it was 

 not gluttony but the somewhat unkind hand of the 

 Almighty One that had done the mischief to the 

 porter s inside. His religious doubts were, however, 

 apparently satisfied by the assurance that it was no 

 unkind hand that had dealt out the pain, but the 

 hand of a benevolent and far-seeing Providence 

 striving by the means of the stomach to bring an 

 erring porter back to the path of duty. 



We were not now looking out for game, and saw 

 but a few reedbuck and a herd of hartebeest grazing 

 placidly by the Mkushi river. There was, how- 

 ever, a certain amount of fresh spoor — always 

 a pleasant sign — and both sable and kudu cows 

 were reported by our men. We passed a party of 

 travellers marching to Tanganyika, who kindly gave 

 us some coffee, our supply having run out, and they 

 mentioned they had seen and shot the commoner 

 sorts of antelope. 



On the 6th, as soon as we were established in our 

 camp, ''Cooky" who knew Broken Hill, announced 

 that the station was not far off, and in anticipation of 

 our getting in next day a great cleaning and washing 

 of clothes and general furbishing took place, so that 

 we might make a fairly presentable appearance on 

 arrival. 



On the morning of the 7th we completed our 



238 



