88 
THE KILIMA-NJAR 0 EXPEDITION. 
Wa-swahili, or natives of the coast, and the people of 
the interior), and armed with Snider guns. They were 
courtiers of Mandara’s, sent thoughtfully by that chief 
to meet us, and see we did not take the wrong road. 
Their greeting, however, was too familiar and impudent, 
to my taste, and I began to have a lurking presentiment 
that these scampish parasites of the chief of Mosi might 
prove inimical to my mission; for, in the interior here, 
white men are looked upon by the coast traders as 
spies on the slave trade, and though outwardly fawned 
on and flattered from fear, yet are secretly thwarted 
and hindered in every possible way, especially as regards 
the native chiefs, whom the Wa-swahili are desirous 
of alienating from enlightenment. However, keeping 
these reflections to myself, I toiled along the ascending 
path, and after an hour’s stiff pull, caught a glimpse of 
an enchanting land. Hitherto our track had led through 
thick bush, with every view of the surrounding country 
shut out. How we had entered a clearing, near to 
cultivation, and nothing impeded our view. North¬ 
wards the vast mass of the mountain stretched upwards 
into the heavens, its twin peaks shrouded in heavy 
cumulus clouds, and below the clouds, the billowy swell 
of hill upon hill and ridge succeeding ridge was a deep 
sullen blue under the heavy shadow of lowering cumuli. 
Then came a few lines of dark purple-green forest, 
still in shade, and, in the middle distance, where the 
sunlight broke upon the scene, the gentle, rounded 
hills gleamed out against the sombre background with 
their groves of emerald-green bananas marking the 
commencement of the cultivated zone. Hearer to us 
succeeded deep ravines, with thread-like cascades, 
clumps of tidy forest—just a few tall trees left grow¬ 
ing out of religious veneration—smooth, sunny downs, 
