idual
it was best not to have any direct dealings. The children slept
excellently the balance of the night, and only at daybreak did they
proceed upon their further journey.

But for Stas anxiety and worry again began. In the first place, he
perceived that they were traveling slowly and that they could not make
more than six miles a day. Proceeding in this manner they would be able
indeed to reach the Abyssinian frontier after a month, but as Stas was
determined to follow Linde's advice in every respect, and Linde had
positively claimed that they would not be able to go through to
Abyssinia, there remained only the road to the ocean. But according to
the calculation of the Swiss they were over six hundred and twenty
miles from the ocean, and that in a direct line; then Mombasa being
situated farther south, the goal was still further; therefore, the
entire journey would require over three months. With alarm Stas thought
that it would be three months of excessive heat, toil, and dangers from
negro tribes which they might encounter. They were still in a desolate
country from which the population had been driven by the smallpox and
news of the dervish raids; but Africa, on the whole, is quite populous,
so sooner or later they must reach localities inhabited by unknown
races, ruled usually by savage and cruel petty kings. It was an
uncommon task to extricate one's self with life and liberty from such
difficulties.

Stas relied simply upon this: that if he chanced upon the Wahima
people, he would drill a few tens of warriors in shooting, and
afterwards induce them by great promises to accompany him to the ocean.
But Kali had no idea where the Wahimas lived; neither could Linde, who
had heard something of the tribe, indicate the way to them, nor could
he designate specifically the locality occupied by them. Linde had
mentioned some great lake, of which he knew only from narratives, and
Kali contended with positiveness that one side of that lake, which he
called Basso-Narok, was occupied by the Wahimas, and the other by the
Samburus. Now Stas was troubled by this: that in the geography of
Africa, which in the school in Port Said was taught very thoroughly,
there was no mention made of such a lake. If Kali only had spoken of
it, he would have assumed that it was Victoria Nyanza, but Linde could
not err for he had just come from Victoria, northward, along the
Karamojo Mountains, and, from reports of natives of those mountains,