CHAPTEB XVIII. 



TRANSPORT. 



A FEICAN transport is apparently just now on 

 the verge of a great and important change. 



The old Arab method, adopted by Europeans, 

 of conveying goods on men's shoulders is doomed 

 to vanish. 



Of all beasts of burden man is the most un- 

 satisfactory. He requires wages besides his food, 

 and he can carry only half the load of a donkey. 



Moreover, the Suahili porter is destined to 

 disappear altogether. The supply of porters in 

 old days was entirely kept up by slave -raiding. 

 Porters, as a rule, have no families, and even if 

 they have children, these are very different in 

 stamina and health to the sturdy Wanyamwesi 

 and Wanyuema savage who was caught young, 

 fifteen to twenty years ago. 



Hence at the very outset of the question one is 

 met by an impossibility. The supply of Suahili 

 porters is diminishing daily, while the goods re- 

 quiring carriage are daily increasing. 



21 * 305 



