30 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



and it was not till the great celebration — a horse- 

 play — was over that they came to fetch us. It was 

 disappointing, but after a water transit of over 1000 

 miles we were too much excited in our first land 

 march to repine. Our start was preluded by bustle 

 and confusion : the horses had not come, there were 

 too few carriers, and the seventy -five there were 

 raised pandemonium. They were a weakly lot, but 

 displayed a certain measure of strength in ousting 

 each other from a stand in front of the most likely 

 looking boxes. Everything hinges, for them, on the 

 first start, for each man stands by a load, and after 

 the signal for departure is given he has to carry 

 that particular burden, and no other, on the top of 

 his head until the destination is reached. The head- 

 man has, of course, the power of adjusting weights 

 or even exchanging them ; but few carriers, and cer- 

 tainly not ours, were ready to do more than need 

 be. They were to accompany us to Golombe, a 

 town in German territory, where carriers under 

 French jurisdiction were to meet us — sent by Captain 

 Lancrenon. Had we taken them over the border 

 we should have been obliged to pay £5 a -head to 

 the German Government in guarantee of each man's 

 return. Visions floated across our minds of seventy- 

 five abscondees, and a consequent loss of £375. 



Golombe was only some forty miles distant, but the 

 regulation marches are short, and we obediently slept 

 at three rest-houses on the way. All three camping- 

 grounds were on an extensive scale, prepared no 

 doubt with a view to military expeditions. Good 

 mud houses are supplied for white men and their 

 boys, a regular little village for the carriers, and 



