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THE NEW AFRICA 
to purchase corn at intervals on the way, and thus we would 
reach the West Coast, passing obnoxious chiefs and the natives 
before they had time to calculate the chances of our appearance 
or the probable cost of interfering with us. This is the way to 
explore in the interior where game is to be had; only, one requires 
a somewhat larger force than ours, and perhaps a few pack-oxen 
at the start to carry the heavier ammunition well into the wilds 
before they succumb to fly-bite; then each man can take his 
share of the loads of ammunition, which should be equally dis¬ 
tributed amongst them, and the rest is all plain sailing. 
But to bring in the best class of goods to be made sport of 
by every miserable thief of a chief one meets, we declared such 
an utter error that we were sure of never making the same 
mistake again. Thus we laid out our plans for the future by the 
fireside at night. 
Of course the first principle influencing a white man travel¬ 
ling through unknown country should be one of absolute peace. 
Peace throughout, never touching any of their fields, crops, 
women, or goods. Where they will not trade at once for corn, 
it is better to pass cheerfully on, trusting to the hunter’s guns 
for food. A good supply of meat, besides satisfying one’s hunger, 
is also the most useful article to barter corn from the natives 
with; for they are very indifferent hunters themselves with their 
miserable weapons, and will always freely barter corn against 
meat, food for food, for they have the same craving for a change 
of diet that one fed on meat alone also experiences in a large 
degree. 
Once across the river and all is well, was our motto. Franz, 
whose courage had fled, was utterly disregarded by us now, and 
Paul instituted as interpreter in his place during the succeeding 
palavers we had with the Mombokooshu king, who under some 
pretext or another kept us waiting from day to day, till Hammar, 
whose patience was quite exhausted, advocated taking stronger 
measures. He suggested that we should seize some canoes, and 
with the help of our boys, who were all good boatmen, ferry 
ourselves over at night; and with this object we tried hard 
