VI 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



231 



was fraught with many dangers to the success of the 

 caravan ; for it is a principle of African travel, when 

 once you have left the coast, to keep your back to it 

 until your journey has beeni accomplished and you are 



Embe Girl carrying Wood 



on your homeward way. But the loss of our beasts of 

 burden, and the number of deaths and desertions which 

 occurred in our caravan, had entirely upset our calcula- 

 tions, and reduced our burden-bearing capacity to such 

 an extent that further advance into the interior with 

 our whole caravan would be impossible, unless we had 



