THE EAST AFRICAN CARAVAN. 



337 



the Malagarazi, which requires a ferry during the dry- 

 season. Cross roads abound in the populous regions. 

 Where they exist not, the jungle is often impassable? 

 except to the elephant and the rhinoceros : a company 

 of pioneers would in some places require a week to cut 

 their way for a single march through the network 

 of thorns and the stockade of rough tree-trunks. The 

 directions issued to travellers about drawing off their 

 parties for safety at night to rising grounds, will not 

 apply to Eastern Africa ; it would be far easier to dig 

 for themselves abodes under the surface. 



It is commonly asserted in the island of Zanzibar 

 that there are no caravans in these regions. The dic- 

 tum is true if the term be limited to the hosts of 

 camels and mules that traverse the deserts and the 

 mountains of Arabia and Persia. It is erroneous if 

 applied to a body of men travelling for commercial 

 purposes. From time immemorial the Wanyamwezi 

 have visited the road to the coast, and though wars and 

 blood-feuds may have temporarily closed one line, 

 another necessarily opened itself. Amongst a race so 

 dependent for comfort and pleasure upon trade, com- 

 merce, like steam, cannot be compressed beyond a cer- 

 tain point. Until a few years ago, when the extension 

 of traffic induced the country people to enlist as porters, 

 all merchants traversed these regions with servile gangs 

 hired on the coast or island of Zanzibar, a custom still 

 prevailing on the northern and southern routes from 

 the sea-board to the lakes of Nyanza and Nyassa. Por- 

 terage, on the long and toilsome journey, is now con- 

 sidered by the Wanyamwezi a test of manliness, as the 

 Englishman deems a pursuit or a profession necessary 

 to clear him from the charge of effeminacy. The 

 children imbibe the desire with their milk, and at six 



vol. i. z 



