30 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. I 



had small-pox. Although we Europeans feared such 

 was the case, we were forced, in order to restore con- 

 fidence to our people, to treat this man ourselves ; and, 

 happily, with no ill result. 



If there is one thing a native African likes more than 

 any other, that thing is sympathy, be its form of expres- 

 sion what it may ; and in order to excite it, he will 

 adopt any means, and go to any length. When our 

 men first caught sight of the medicine chest, and the 

 different-coloured medicines, the list of sick and ailing 

 was enormous. A few doses of the most nauseous 

 drugs, however, soon reduced the list of applicants to 

 reasonable proportions, which saved our stock of medi- 

 cine from premature exhaustion. 



As the day set for our departure from Mkonumbi 

 drew near, I sent sixty loads of millet and forty-one 

 loads of my trading-goods to Kau, the point at which it 

 had been arranged the canoes should be in readiness. I 

 placed in charge of these Mohamet Aman and four 

 Zanzibar!. These men I instructed to convey the 

 canoes to Kinakombe, distant up the Tana some eighty 

 miles. At specified points along the route they were to 

 deposit with the natives stores of food for my caravan ; 

 and upon reaching Kinakombe they were to await my 

 arrival. 



Reports had reached me that the inhabitants of the 

 Tana district were starving, and would therefore be 

 unable to sell food; for, owing to the repeated raids 

 of the Pumwani and Jongeni people, they had not 

 been permitted to devote the usual time to the culti- 

 vation of crops. To obviate this we sent these canoe- 

 loads of food. 



