156 
THE NEW AFRICA 
Long afterwards, I learned that this uncanny sound was caused 
by the rapid beat of the wings of snipe when towering. 
The preparations for camp complete, I took two good 
blankets, a couple of bags of gunpowder, several bars of lead, 
and some cloth, beads, etc., as a preliminary present for Matam- 
banja, and started on the 9th of August, crossing the Liana— 
here about forty yards wide and fourteen feet deep, running 
in a clear stream that showed the sandy bottom plainly—in a 
canoe, and went about a mile westwards towards the kraal of 
a small chief called Kankombe or Kikonto, to whom I had 
to give four pieces of cloth before he would provide me with 
a guide, or allow me to proceed to Matambanja’s. The guide 
he gave led us for about a mile, and then, as if in terror, hastily 
bolted into the bush. I went back and scolded Kikonto roundly 
for supplying me with such an irresponsible leader, and got 
another man to show us the road. This fellow was a tall, 
hungry, thin, black-looking savage, armed with 
bow and barbed arrows, who unwillingly under¬ 
took the job, but when he got 
the lead went off at a great pace 
across the sand-belts. Luckily, 
the condition we were in qualified 
us to keep up with him, for he 
:ept going at a rate probably 
intended to exhaust us 
soon. I told the boys 
on no account to let 
this fellow slip away, a 
thing he tried once or 
twice to do; so we kept 
on his heels in spite of his efforts to get ahead, and before 
evening he slacked off a bit, but always managed to keep 
another boy between himself and my personality, as if in fear 
that direct contact with me would injure him. He was absol¬ 
utely the wildest human being I ever met, and could not 
have shown more uneasiness in presence of a beast. 
