CHAPTER V 
SWASURI AND THE LEOPARD 
One afternoon, in Portuguese East Africa, as we 
were on our way through the forest to our camp on 
the Locheringo River and only about two hours 
distant from our destination, we suddenly heard the 
sound of excited native voices, not more than a 
hundred yards away. Our curiosity aroused, we at 
once turned our steps in the direction of the hubbub, 
and came upon a score or so of Mataka’s men, all 
armed with muzzle-loading rifles, and, as we learned 
afterwards, on their way home after raiding a small 
village on the Rovuma River. They had with 
them four captives—two boys, a woman, and a girl 
—whom they were hustling along like cattle, but 
with a brutality almost inconceivable to the Euro¬ 
pean mind, and so surprised were they at meeting 
a white man unexpectedly in the heart of the 
trackless forest, especially in such incriminating 
circumstances, that they were completely at a loss 
