54 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. II. 



turn them back. I told them they not only remained in the 

 way when ordered to march, but offered eight rupees to Ali 

 to lead them to the coast, and that the excuse of sickness 

 was nought, for they had eaten heartily three meals a day 

 while pretending illness. They had no excuse to offer, so 

 I disrated the naik or corporal, and sentenced the others to 

 carry loads ; if they behave well, then they will get fatigue 

 pay for doing fatigue duty, if ill, nothing but their pay. 

 Their limbs are becoming contracted from sheer idleness ; 

 while all the other men are well and getting stronger they 

 alone are disreputably slovenly and useless-looking. Their 

 filthy habits are to be reformed, and if found at their habit 

 of sitting down and sleeping for hours on the march, or 

 without their muskets and pouches, they are to be flogged. 

 I sent two of them back to bring up two comrades, left 

 behind yesterday. All who have done work are compara- 

 tively strong. 



[We may venture a word in passing on the subject of 

 native recruits, enlisted for service in Africa, and who return 

 thither after a long absence. All the Nassick boys were 

 native-born Africans, and yet we see one of them succumb 

 immediately. The truth is that natives, under these cir- 

 cumstances, are just as liable to the effects of malaria on 

 landing as Europeans, although it is not often that fever 

 assumes a dangerous form in such cases. The natives of the 

 interior have the greatest dread of the illnesses which they 

 say are sure to be in store for them if they visit the coast.] 



19th June. — I gave the sepoys light loads in order to inure 

 them to exercise and strengthen them, and they carried 

 willingly so long as the fright was on them, but when the 

 fear of immediate punishment wore off they began their 

 skulking again. One, Perim, reduced his load of about 

 20 lbs. of tea by throwing away the lead in which it was 



