came to an unadventurous
end in a small valley, watered by a tiny brook, as the sun was sinking
beneath the western horizon. Thenceforward their progress was steady,
averaging about twenty miles a day, for six days a week, Sunday being
always observed as a rest day, whenever possible, primarily for the sake
of the cattle, it must be confessed, which it was found required at
least one day's rest in every seven upon such a prolonged journey as
that upon which they were now engaged. The journey was not altogether
devoid of adventure, by any means; for upon one occasion they killed no
less than five of their oxen through overwork during a hurried flight
from the neighbourhood of a devastating grass fire; they lost three more
at one fell swoop while crossing a flooded river; six succumbed to snake
bites; four fell a prey to lions; and seven died of sickness believed to
have been induced by the eating of some poisonous plant. But, after
all, these were merely the ordinary accidents incidental to travel in
the African wilderness, and would need too much space to be recorded in
detail. The natives whom they encountered from time to time during
their progress were by no means uniformly friendly, but tact and
firmness, coupled with an occasional demonstration of the terribly
destructive qualities of their firearms, and a judicious distribution of
presents among the chiefs, secured them from actual molestation, though
there were times when it seemed to be, figuratively speaking, a toss-up,
whether they would or would not have to choose between being turned back
or "wiped out."

Indeed now, when they had been continuously journeying for nearly three
months since they had turned their backs upon the friendly Makolo
nation, and were daily receiving fresh evidence that they were drawing
very near to the goal of their long pilgrimage, it was by the merest
chance, the most extraordinary caprice of the king into whose country
they had penetrated, that they were permitted to live and accorded
freedom to pursue their journey unmolested. For the savages among whom
they now found themselves seemed to be possessed of an extraordinarily
virulent animus, or prejudice--call it which you will--against
whiteskins, due, as the travellers eventually discovered, to the fact
that a nation of whites inhabited the adjacent territory, between whom
and the blacks, who surrounded them on all sides, an implacable enmity
had existed as far back as hist