MY FIRST SETTLEMENT ON KILIMA NJARO. 115 
(overlooking tlie bed of a rivulet) would best answer 
my purpose for a secure and pleasant settlement. 
After experience showed me that this almost accidental 
choice would have been a strangely fortunate one, 
and had I made a permanent residence in Mandara’s 
country, I should have eventually built there. But 
on my indicating this selection to the chief on my 
arrival, I could see that it met with his secret dis¬ 
approval. He really feared that in establishing myself 
on this distant spot I should be too independent of 
his caprices. Yet he did not countermand it, but 
merely nodded and said enigmatically, “ We shall 
see—keso, keso 55 {keso ! fatal word = £ to-morrow’). 
However, I was determined to show him that I in¬ 
tended to have my own way. Accordingly, I prepared 
actively for departure on the morrow. I thought it 
ominous that no guides or message came from 
Mandara’s court, but I, nevertheless, affected not to 
notice this, and gave the order cheerfully to shoulder 
loads and march. Only thirty men—-the Zanzibaris-— 
responded. The Babai porters sat sullen and im¬ 
movable, and raised not a finger to their loads. I 
asked them if they had understood me. “ Perfectly,” 
they said, u but Mandara had given them orders not 
to move.” “ But,” I exclaimed, U I am your master, 
I pay you, and I command you to take up your loads 
and follow me to the last stage of the journey.” 
“ What do we care for your commands ? ” they replied. 
u Why Mandara could kill us all in a moment, and 
who could resist him? And you—why you daren’t 
even beat us, because you know we should tell the 
missionaries.” This was indeed bitterness for me, 
especial]y the feeling that I was impotent to harm 
these wretches. Unfortunately, they had all received 
