CH. xin.] Hiring Guides. 269 



among the hill villagers. When Mr. Lobb was there, 

 five years later, he had but a small party of followers, and 

 not being prepared to pay in cloth and other goods so 

 liberally as Mr. Low had done, they refused to help him, 

 and he was compelled to leave without ascending the 

 mountain, as he had desired to do. Even in 1858 Mr. 

 Low and Mr. S. St. John had to "guard carefully against 

 pilferers," and had a little hostility to contend with as 

 well. On their second expedition, in the same year, 

 however, they experienced a better reception. Some 

 years later, I believe in 1866, an Italian expedition came 

 here for natural history purposes, and the Dusun account 

 is that they ascended 6,000 feet. This expedition, 

 according to native accounts, paid twice as much as was 

 necessary, a precedent which gives these hill villagers an 

 excuse for extortion. When I and Mr. Peter Veitch 

 came here, eight months ago, we had a well-armed force 

 at our backs, and we taught the Kiau people how to 

 moderate their desires by paying a just price for all the}' 

 gave or sold to us, and for all services performed, but we 

 gave no presents. Livingstone* deprecates the system 

 of giving presents in his first work on travel, and he is 

 not the only traveller who has had reason to complain of 

 a mode of procedure which invariably causes incon- 

 venience to others. These people were always well- 

 disposed towards us, and this time I find our plan was a 

 good one, for there is no misunderstanding ; fowls, rice, 

 and other provisions are far more easUy procurable now, 

 since the natives know that all will be fairly paid for, 

 whereas under the old system their object was to give a 

 small present in the hope of receiving something far 

 more valuable. 



* "Missionary Travels and Eesearches in South Africa." John Murray. 

 1857. 



