102 THE GREAT COMPANIES 



You have been marching along a burning path 

 all day perhaps, and, it may be, are somewhat out 

 of your reckoning, when it suddenly dawns upon 

 you that the narrow native path, with its many 

 needless sinuosities and spiteful hindrances in the 

 shape of tall, scratching grasses, and annoying 

 unlooked-for tree-trunks, has suddenly straightened 

 out and widened considerably. From some distance 

 away comes the hum of voices, punctuated by the 

 yapping of a dog and the thudding of mortars. 

 Finally, along a pleasant green vista of luxuriant 

 banana fronds, several mud houses with heavy 

 thatched roofs make their appearance, and these 

 once passed, you emerge into a good-sized open 

 space enclosed on three sides by stores, magazines, 

 and police quarters, and on the fourth by the 

 commandant's residence. In the middle of this 

 space, which is kept scrupulously swept, a flag-staff 

 is standing, from whose summit floats the har- 

 monious colouring of the Portuguese national flag. 

 The commandant hurries forth to meet you with 

 an air of grave courtesy, and is usually inexpressibly 

 relieved if he finds you are able to speak a little 

 Portuguese. Should this be beyond your powers, 

 however, he exerts himself to remember any frag- 

 ments of English or French which may still form 

 part of the flotsam and jetsam of his more cos- 

 mopolitan memory, and in the end you succeed in 

 understanding one another perfectly. A comfort- 

 able chamber is then pointed out, a bath prepared, 

 and finally, refreshed from the fatigues of the long 

 day's march, you seek out your host, whom you 

 find busily engaged in making arrangements for 



