PROSPECTS OF E. EQUATORIAL AFRICA. 553 
of their food is about twopence a day. Many of these 
men make very decent soldiers and guards, as Stanley 
has found on the Congo. As a rule the Zanzibar 
porters are faithful, trustworthy men—I have always 
found them so, and have even discovered very fine 
qualities in their nature too. At any rate, if they fall 
out with a white man it is generally his fault; a very 
little discipline, together with a kind and quiet manner, 
will always keep them in order. Many of them can 
read and write their own language in the Arabic 
character, so that if you wish to communicate with 
them at a distance you can do so by letter. The cost 
of keeping these men in the country would very much 
lessen after the first year or two, as you might soon 
grow sufficient food on your plantations to support the 
entire expedition. These Zanzibaris are very easily 
satisfied. They will subsist tranquilly on a few 
handfuls of maize a day, or a little rice and dried fish, 
or simply bananas ; while if you manage to bring down 
some zebra or antelope with your rifle they are over¬ 
joyed. In two days ten men will construct you a 
spacious dwelling with a grass-thatched rain-tight 
roof, and in a much shorter time will build their own 
simpler habitations. They are singularly handy, and 
can plant gardens, make roads, trap animals, cure 
skins, construct bird-cages, wash clothes, mend them, 
make them, cook a dinner, and arrange a nosegay with 
equal facility. They are much more ingenious than 
English navvies, much more enduring of hardships, 
and much more courteous in behaviour. Without 
doubt, they are the means, the force, by which 
Eastern Africa will be opened up. 
The white men who should form the pioneers of 
any commercial enterprise in Central Africa must be 
