392 
AFRICA AND ITS EXFLORATION, 
“ Amigo ! ” 
At the door of my liut, as though he had risen from 
the earth, stood a man. I heard his salutation, but the 
darkness prevented me from seeing his face. 
What stroke of fortune was this ? At once I tore out 
some loose straw thatch, and kindling up the fire invited 
the stranger to enter. 
He was a small man, with a somewhat dark com¬ 
plexion, and proved to be Eustaquio da Costa, a Portu¬ 
guese elephant hunter, who had just returned from a 
hunt, and having heard of my arrival came immediately 
to see me. 
The elephant hunter was astounded to find a white 
man in such a solitary state, and told me he never tra¬ 
velled without a strongly-armed escort. He had just 
arrived from another town of Chikuse’s, about half a 
day’s journey further north. Elephants were scarce, 
and therefore the members of his party were ranging far 
inland and northward. 
When I told Ha Costa of the course 1 had travelled, 
he said I had run a great risk, especially as the Makanga 
people were a bad and treacherous race, who robbed and 
murdered parties with ivory and other produce. As he 
advanced through a country he sent men ahead, while 
he followed in rear with a hundred armed retainers. 
Then I explained to him my extraordinary position, 
and described what I had gone through at the other 
towns in this country, telling also of the alarming expe¬ 
riences of the previous night, of the beer-drinking tur¬ 
moil, of the start I had got by the report of a gun in 
the next hut, followed by the carrying out of a dead 
body in the morning, and of the visit of the fat dame. 
Why did she come to me ? was a natural question. Last 
of all, I told of my reverie upon plans to reach the lake 
alone. 
The arrangement now made was that I was to remain 
in my quarters until he could hear what was going on. 
“ Once,” he said, “ their suspicions are aroused, it is 
almost an impossibility to remove them, or convince 
the people of good intentions. I will get some men to 
