56 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



Biirgan, that raiding along the banks of the Tana 

 must cease. I doubt if he ever delivered my message. 



After this little experience I returned to my camp 

 at Tuni, having acquired but little satisfactory informa- 

 tion, and a sharp attack of fever. 



While at Tuni two of my men deserted. One of the 

 most difficult phases of African travel is the desire, latent 

 in nearly every porter, to desert at one time or another 

 during an expedition. There are but few porters em- 

 ployed on the east coast of Africa who have not at 

 some period in their career tasted the sweets of French 

 leave. I have questioned many of them, but they, 

 themselves, could give no reason for their desertion. 

 Generally, if closely pressed, they would laugh, shrug 

 their shoulders, and say: " Nimechoka, bwana " (I was 

 tired, master). Sometimes a porter will work in a cara- 

 van an entire year, and then, without apparent cause, 

 when perhaps hundreds of miles from his home, will 

 desert; not only forfeiting all the pay he has earned, 

 but running a very considerable risk of not reaching 

 the coast alive. 



During my first journey into Africa I had but four 

 desertions from my caravan ; which I attribute to the 

 fact that my porters were, for the most part, Wanyan- 

 wezi, a tribe inhabiting a section of the country about 

 300 miles south of Victoria Nyanza. Those men made 

 the best possible porters, and rarely, if ever, deserted. 

 In this expedition, however, I had succeeded in secur- 

 ing but one of this tribe, and he proved one of the few 

 who remained faithful to the end. A traveller explor- 

 ino- an unknown portion of Africa is dependent for the 

 safety and success of his expedition upon the fidelity 



