to the period of infancy as
the finest and fairest they have known. They would go back to freedom
and enjoyment as fast as would our own sons of the soil, and be heedless
to the charms of hard work and no play which we think so much better
for them if not for us.

In some cases we found all the villages deserted; the people had fled at
our approach, in dread of repetitions of the outrages of Arab slaves.
The doors were all shut: a bunch of the leaves of reeds or of green
reeds placed across them, means "no entrance here." A few stray chickens
wander about wailing, having hid themselves while the rest were caught
and carried off into the deep forest, and the still smoking fires tell
the same tale of recent flight from the slave-traders.

Many have found out that I am not one of their number, so in various
cases they stand up and call out loudly, "Bolongo, Bolongo!"
"Friendship, Friendship!" They sell their fine iron bracelets eagerly
for a few beads; for (bracelets seem out of fashion since beads came
in), but they are of the finest quality of iron, and were they nearer
Europe would be as eagerly sought and bought as horse-shoe nails are for
the best gun-barrels. I overhear the Manyuema telling each other that I
am the "good one." I have no slaves, and I owe this character to the
propagation of a good name by the slaves of Zanzibar, who are anything
but good themselves. I have seen slaves belonging to the seven men now
with us slap the cheeks of grown men who had offered food for sale; it
was done in sheer wantonness, till I threatened to thrash them if I saw
it again; but out of my sight they did it still, and when I complained
to the masters they confessed that all the mischief was done by slaves;
for the Manyuema, on being insulted, lose temper and use their spears on
the nasty curs, and then vengeance is taken with guns. Free men behave
better than slaves; the bondmen are not responsible. The Manyuema are
far more beautiful than either the bond or free of Zanzibar; I overhear
the remark often, "If we had Manyuema wives what beautiful children we
should beget." The men are usually handsome, and many of the women are
very pretty; hands, feet, limbs, and forms perfect in shape and the
colour light-brown, but the orifices of the nose are widened by
snuff-takers, who ram it up as far as they can with the finger and
thumb: the teeth are not filed, except a small space between the two
upper front teeth.

_5th March, 1871