34 THE LAND OF THE LION 



native cook I verily believe, in all Africa who would not 

 make a hotch-potch of the best packed and assorted "chop 

 box" * in one hour. But John saves me, for every chop 

 box is locked, and kept locked, and he carries the keys. 

 Simple, faithful little soul, never out of temper, never 

 bringing tales of anyone however badly he may be served, 

 you come by your fine, capable nature right honestly, 

 for your father before you, John Connop, was one of the 

 two or three indomitable black boys that no suffering or 

 danger could drive from the side of the lonely, great man, 

 Livingstone. All over unknown Africa they tramped with 

 him, tended by them only he died. And down to the dis- 

 tant sea coast they brought his body. Needless to say, 

 John, too, is a Christian and a mission boy. 



I am not drawing a fanciful picture or writing a novel; 

 I am only stating facts, a few of many that might be 

 stated. John, among a considerable variety of employ- 

 ments, served as a nurse for a year in a hospital. When 

 we had one of our men mauled by a lion, and when for 

 six weeks twice daily, the wounds had to be treated with 

 boiled water and antiseptic, John could and did for days 

 together undertake the man's treatment. He can march 

 all day with the best porters, and as he does so carries an 

 extra gun for me. He lives on one meal a day, boiled 

 rice if he can get it. If not that, any potio going, and he 

 doesn't have that one meal till he has seen the tents up, 

 the beds made, the mosquito nets hung, our dinner cooked 

 and eaten. Then he has his meal, and I know though 

 J can never catch him at it one cigarette afterward. 



Porters are to the sefari what the Macedonian phalanx 

 was to Alexander's armies. There can be no safari without 

 them. Successful sportsmen there have been who de- 

 pended for transport almost entirely on donkeys or ox 

 wagon, but as between the donkey and the porter, many 



* Box containing personal foods and delicacies. 



