6 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



auxiliary to our forces, is my collector Jose Lopes, my right- 

 hand man for usefulness ; for, not only was his experience 

 gathered on my previous expeditions very valuable, but he 

 also combined in his person the offices of collector and inter- 

 preter, for he had a good knowledge of Hausa, gained when he 

 was with me on the Gold Coast. This last accomphshment of 

 Jose's was extremely useful in more ways than one ; for, 

 by its means he was able to keep his finger (so to speak) upon 

 the pulses of the boys and let me know quietly when their 

 tempers were out of order, so that I could forestall outbreaks 

 of discontent by tact and firmness, steadying the foundations 

 before the structure began to rock. He was able, also, to 

 get further into the confidence of the rulers and chiefs we 

 came across, and so we obtained a great deal more infor- 

 mation of interest than would otherwise have been possible. 



Jose Lopes has been my faithful servant for ten years. 

 I found him as a little boy, working on his father's trading- 

 boat that plied between the Cape Verde Islands. Since then 

 he has been through five expeditions with me and has seen 

 active service in Ashanti. He is an expert skinner and good 

 shot and thoroughly understands the working of transport. 

 For this last expedition, I foresaw that his old calHng 

 of the sea would come in extremely useful for the manage- 

 ment of our boats. Before we started Jose went through a 

 course of instruction at South Kensington to complete his 

 knowledge in the skinning of the larger beasts, such as 

 giraffe and antelope. 



Having arranged our scheme of work and brought together 

 our party, the hardest obstacle had yet to be overcome, and 

 that was to obtain leave from our regiments and to bring down 



