VII 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



325 



cheat our expectations. We had food in plenty, and 

 we felt that the sacrifice of many lives for the sake 

 of beasts of burden alone was unwarranted. We 

 realized, nevertheless, that withdrawal from the neigh- 

 bourhood would imply to the Rendile that we stood 

 in fear of them; and with that idea in their minds 

 the next European who visited their country would 



Type of Landscape 



With people of a warlike nature, such as the Rendile, 

 the advance of civilization must always be attended 

 with more or less bloodshed. Their isolation, their 

 great numbers and consequent confidence, render them 

 not only averse to friendly overtures, but prone to 

 turn their power into a means of easy profit by attack- 

 ing their visitors. 



No African tribe I have yet met preferred trade to 

 war. Plunder is with them the only means of trans- 

 acting exchange, until by severe lessons they are taught 

 that the people with whom they are brought into 



