328 



TO KEN I A 



requests that tlieir chiefs would come and confer with us. 

 This assumed indifference is an ordinary ruse with them, and 

 we, in our turn, remained apparently unmoved by their war- 

 cries, the slight movement of the hand in cocking a gun being 

 all but imperceptible. As it began to get dark we sent Kijanja 

 with fifty men to ask the warriors to retire, saying that if they 

 did not do so quietly we must clear the ground by force. They 

 then drew back, and when it grew dark we sent up a few 

 rockets, after which the chiefs of both sides of the valley came 

 into camp to make blood-brotherhood with us. 



The next day, September 20, owing to the direct road being 

 impracticable, our course formed something like a capital S. 

 As usual we had two brooks to cross, both presenting special 

 difficulties, though they were in themselves quite insignificant. 

 At the first some 2,000 old warriors, with arrows ready for 

 shooting in their hands, looked down on us from the neigh- 

 bouring ridge, rejected our offered tribute with scorn, and 

 so pressed upon Count Teleki and his guard that he had to 

 order one half of the men to stand under arms and protect the 

 others whilst they clove their way through the crowds with the 

 bales and donkeys. For a whole hour we in the rear-guard 

 had to stand waiting, and if a fio-ht had come off it would have 

 gone hardly with us. But once more it was averted, though 

 why the natives did not attack us it is difficult to say ; they 

 could certainly never have a more favourable opportunity. We 

 did not breathe freely till the brook was left far behind us. The 

 rest of this day's march was through a district equally rugged, 

 but not nearly so densely populated, and round about our next 

 camp there were only yam and banana plantations, no cereals. 



On September 21 we bore first eastward, then south- 

 eastward ; the hills were broader here and the valleys wider. 

 ISTumbers of natives followed us, but there were a good many 

 women and children amongst them, which did much to reassure 



