214 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
negroid population of East Africa, then I think this 
hybrid race is destined to largely help in the opening-up 
of Africa. The mixture of Arab blood and Arab culture 
gives a stability and manliness to the Waswahili which is 
lacking in even the finest race of pure Negro origin. The 
Congo peoples, for instance, are usually amiable and soft- 
mannered, but at heart they are seldom to be depended 
on. There is something so eminently childish in the 
Neero’s character. A love of talking, a desire to thrust 
himself forward in every matter, a naiveté of manner 
which is at times very amusing, but which becomes 
somewhat wearisome when you are no longer content to 
be amused, and seek for something more reliable than 
mere simplicity of thought. All these traits are found in 
the black races of Africa that are of purely Negro or ~ 
Bantu stock; but in the Semiticised people of Zanzibar 
you find men of thought and reflection, whom you may 
use as counsellors and confidants; men who are really 
capable of zealous service, of disinterested affection, and 
to whom gratitude is a concept neither foreign to their 
intelligence nor their tongue. 
Arrived on board the mail steamer Portugal, I found 
myself, after many months’ absence from civilization, once 
more among people that were fashionably dressed. Fresh 
from Europe, and touching at the African continent for 
the first time on the voyage, they regarded me curiously 
as I walked about the deck in my tattered garments and 
cumbrous boots, and I felt myself morbidly sensitive to 
their scrutiny. Faraji, Mafta and Imbono had said their 
last good-byes, and the boat which bore them back to the 
shore was disappearing fast from my view in the evening 
mists that swathed the swampy coast; the Krumen who 
had accompanied me from Vivi had also gone, in haste to 
spend the little money-presents I had given them; I felt 
singularly and sadly alone—somewhat like a fallen 
potentate. Here were people who, far from shrinking 
from my frown, glared at me unmoved, and calmly 
reviewed my idiosyncrasies through their insolent eye- 
glasses. The stewards were anything but deferential, and 
