(glass eye) is his name, and a good man is he and a true, being
of a curious tribe who pass their life upon the water, and live

in floating kraals.
'Now, we three whom thou seest would travel inland, past Dongo

Egere, the great white mountain (Mt Kenia), and far into the
unknown beyond. We know not what we shall find there; we go

to hunt and seek adventures, and new places, being tired of sitting
still, with the same old things around us. Wilt thou come with

us? To thee shall be given command of all our servants; but
what shall befall thee, that I know not. Once before we three

journeyed thus, in search of adventure, and we took with us a
man such as thou -- one Umbopa; and, behold, we left him the

king of a great country, with twenty Impis (regiments), each
of 3,000 plumed warriors, waiting on his word. How it shall

go with thee, I know not; mayhap death awaits thee and us.
Wilt thou throw thyself to Fortune and come, or fearest thou,

Umslopogaas?'
The great man smiled. 'Thou art not altogether right, Macumazahn,'

he said; 'I have plotted in my time, but it was not ambition
that led me to my fall; but, shame on me that I should have to

say it, a fair woman's face. Let it pass. So we are going to
see something like the old times again, Macumazahn, when we fought

and hunted in Zululand? Ay, I will come. Come life, come death,
what care I, so that the blows fall fast and the blood runs red?

I grow old, I grow old, and I have not fought enough! And yet
am I a warrior among warriors; see my scars' -- and he pointed

to countless cicatrices, stabs and cuts, that marked the skin
of his chest and legs and arms. 'See the hole in my head; the

brains gushed out therefrom, yet did I slay him who smote, and
live. Knowest thou how many men I have slain, in fair hand-to-hand

combat, Macumazahn? See, here is the tale of them' -- and he
pointed to long rows of notches cut in the rhinoceros-horn handle

of his axe. 'Number them, Macumazahn -- one hundred and three
-- and I have never counted but those whom I have ripped open

{Endnote 3}, nor have I reckoned those whom another man had struck.'
'Be silent,' I said, for I saw that he was getting the blood-fever

on him; 'be silent; well art thou called the "Slaughterer".
We would not hear of thy deeds of blood. Remember, if thou comest

with us, we fight not save in self-defence. Listen, we need
servants. These men,' and I pointed to the Wakwafi, who had

retired a little way during our 'indaba' (talk), 'say they will not come.'
'Will not come!' shouted Umslopogaas; 'where is the dog who says

he will not come when my Father orders? Here, thou' -- and with
a single bound he sprang upon the Wakwafi with whom I had first

spoken, and, seizing him by the arm, dragged him towards us.
'Thou dog!' he said, giving the terrified man a shake, 'didst

thou say that thou wouldst not go with my Father? Say it once
more and I will choke thee' -- and his long fingers closed round

his throat as he said it -- 'thee, and those with thee. Hast
thou forgotten how I served thy brother?'

'Nay, we will come with the white man,' gasped the man.
'White man!' went on Umslopogaas, in simulated fury, which a

very little provocation would have made real enough; 'of whom
speakest thou, insolent dog?'

'Nay, we will go with the great chief.'
'So!' said Umslopogaas, in a quiet voice, as he suddenly released

his hold, so that the man fell backward. 'I thought you would.'
'That man Umslopogaas seems to have a curious moral ascendency

over his companions,' Good afterwards remarked thoughtfully.
CHAPTER II

THE BLACK HAND
In due course we left Lamu, and ten days afterwards we found

ourselves at a spot called Charra, on the Tana River, having
gone through many adventures which need not be recorded here.

Amongst other things we visited a ruined city, of which there
are many on this coast, and which must once, to judge from their

extent and the numerous remains of mosques and stone houses,
have been very populous places. These ruined cities are immeasurably

ancient, having, I believe, been places of wealth and importance
as far back as the Old Testament times, when they were centres

of trade with India and elsewhere. But their glory has departed
now -- the slave trade has finished them -- and where wealthy

merchants from all parts of the then civilized world stood and
bargained in the crowded market-places, the lion holds his court

at night, and instead of the chattering of slaves and the eager
voices of the bidders, his awful note goes echoing down the ruined

corridors. At this particular place we discovered on a mound,
covered up with rank growth and rubbish, two of the most beautiful

stone doorways that it is possible to conceive. The carving
on them was simply exquisite, and I only regret that we had no

means of getting them away. No doubt they had once been the
entrances to a palace, of which, however, no traces were now

to be seen, though probably its ruins lay under the rising mound.
Gone! quite gone! the way that everything must go. Like the

nobles and the ladies who lived within their gates, these cities
have had their day, and now they are as Babylon and Nineveh,

and as London and Paris will one day be. Nothing may endure.
That is the inexorable law. Men and women, empires and cities,

thrones, principalities, and powers, mountains, rivers, and unfathomed
seas, worlds, spaces, and universes, all have their day, and

all must go. In this ruined and forgotten place the moralist
may behold a symbol of the universaldestiny. For this system

of ours allows no room for standing still -- nothing can loiter
on the road and check the progress of things upwards towards

Life, or the rush of things downwards towards Death. The stern
policeman Fate moves us and them on, on, uphill and downhill

and across the level; there is no resting-place for the weary
feet, till at last the abyss swallows us, and from the shores

of the Transitory we are hurled into the sea of the Eternal.
At Charra we had a violent quarrel with the headman of the bearers

we had hired to go as far as this, and who now wished to extort
large extra payment from us. In the result he threatened to

set the Masai -- about whom more anon -- on to us. That night
he, with all our hired bearers, ran away, stealing most of the

goods which had been entrusted to them to carry. Luckily, however,
they had not happened to steal our rifles, ammunition, and personal

effects; not because of any delicacy of feeling on their part,
but owing to the fact that they chanced to be in the charge of

the five Wakwafis. After that, it was clear to us that we had
had enough of caravans and of bearers. Indeed, we had not much

left for a caravan to carry. And yet, how were we to get on?
It was Good who solved the question. 'Here is water,' he said,

pointing to the Tana River; 'and yesterday I saw a party of natives
hunting hippopotami in canoes. I understand that Mr Mackenzie's

mission station is on the Tana River. Why not get into canoes
and paddle up to it?'

This brilliantsuggestion was, needless to say, received with
acclamation; and I instantly set to work to buy suitable canoes

from the surrounding natives. I succeeded after a delay of three
days in obtaining two large ones, each hollowed out of a single

log of some light wood, and capable of holding six people and
baggage. For these two canoes we had to pay nearly all our

remaining cloth, and also many other articles.
On the day following our purchase of the two canoes we effected

a start. In the first canoe were Good, Sir Henry, and three
of our Wakwafi followers; in the second myself, Umslopogaas,