AN ENGLISHMAN WHO WAS 287 



Englishman. I determined, therefore, to seek him 

 out, and this is what I found. 



Not far from a small river which flowed into the 

 Zambezi, there was a clearing in the forest, that 

 is to say, trees had been cut down over an area of 

 a httle less than an acre. In the midst of this 

 space stood a house consisting of one room. It 

 was built of mud, with a thatched roof, the interior, 

 as well as the pathetic attempt at a verandah, being 

 also floored with mud. Seated on the floor, and 

 clad in nothing but a calico loin-cloth, 1 saAv the 

 gaunt, bearded figure of a man, not old in years, 

 but prematurely aged by solitude and intellectual 

 starvation. He was languidly cleaning a basket 

 of native beans, muttering to himself the while. 

 In the room itself there were, so far as I remember, 

 only two articles, a large native bedstead — a mere 

 oblong frame with cord stretched from side to side 

 and from top to bottom, upon which a couple of 

 blankets were spread — and an upturned box which 

 served as a table. There was no window, and the 

 door was the usual native contrivance of reeds, 

 vsdth a transverse pole running through string loops 

 at either side. As my shadow crossed the thres- 

 hold, the proprietor looked up, and after a moment's 

 scrutiny said : " Ah, I see you are English. It 

 is some time since I saw one of my own kind. I 

 sometimes almost forget that I am one." And he 

 laughed a laugh which was not good to hear. Poor 

 fellow, I stayed a couple of days with him, and 

 made him free of my stores, the simplest of 

 which was an unspeakable luxury to him. He 

 had been living on native food for longer than he 



