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BEATEN VERSUS UNBEATEN PATH. 



I repeat, in wayfaring, as in warfare, opportunity 

 is everything : better an ounce of fortune's 

 favours than a ton of genius or merit. 



We followed the Arab line of traffic, first laid 

 open to Lake Tanganyika by Sayf bin Said el 

 Muameri, about 1825. The existence of a beaten 

 path in Africa has its advantages and its disad- 

 vantas^es. The natives are accustomed to tra- 

 vellers ; they no longer perpetually attribute to 

 them supernatural and pernicious powers, nor do 

 they, except amongst the worst tribes, expect 

 every manner of evil to follow the portent : it 

 is not difficult to engage hands, nor is it im- 

 possible to collect information concerning regions 

 which cannot be visited. At the same time, con- 

 tact with the slave-dealer has increased cupidity 

 and has diminished hospitality : the African 

 loses all sense of savage honour, without learn- 

 ing to replace it by commercial honesty, and all 

 his ingenuity is devoted to the contrivance and 

 the carrying out of ' avanies.' But where, on the 

 other hand, the explorer must hew his own way 

 — such was the case with Paul du Chaillu from 

 the Gaboon region, and with myself up the Congo 

 river — and where there is no prescriptive right 

 of transit even for pay, the adventure waxes far 

 more difficult and dangerous, llcre we sec the 



