386 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
imagine at sucli a moment. At the same time I was 
o 
much troubled at having to become what a reporter 
would call the “ cynosure of all eyes” under my present 
disadvantageous circumstances. 
Armed warriors approached until they came within 
disagreeable proximity. I was seated on a rock close to 
which sat the six men who had accompanied me. Soon 
I heard a buzz of noisy excitement at my back, and turn¬ 
ing round to see from whence the sound proceeded, I 
observed a considerable crowd descending the gentle slope 
of the town’s site. In the thick of the crowd was a very 
broad, fat man, robed in a mantle, or rather a sheet of a 
deep blue colour. The people wore nothing upon their 
heads, and very little upon their bodies—no Kaffir does 
excepting when he has become a degenerate civilised 
Kaffir. 
The Angoni despot approached. I arose, but was im¬ 
mediately pressed down on the rock by my followers, who 
appeared to be awe-stricken. There I sat, he and his 
people also sitting, the distance between us being about 
fifteen yards. 
There could be little doubt as to which of the crowd 
was Chikuse, for the whole demeanour and bearing of 
the fat man told me that he was the monarch. Few 
words were exchanged, and those were between the head¬ 
man who had come with me and himself. I wonder 
what was said ! 
Chikuse laughed, and seemed rather to scoff at my 
dejected appearance ; and when he laughed all his 
courtiers chimed in. I was convinced that I had given 
them a big surprise, if nothing else. 
Nevertheless it was a great relief when the ordeal was 
over, for I had been bathed in perspiration through the 
steep ascent to the town, and now, under a stiff breeze 
from the eastward, I was becoming chilled. 
The king rose and pointed, standing in his place, 
while I followed the men to the hut which had been 
granted to me—a very small one, only seven feet in 
diameter. 
A description of the utter loneliness of my condition 
