"Mr. Thomson found that the Masai warriors came quite near the coast in their marauding expeditions, and several of the Wa-kamba villages in the region back of Frere Town had been plundered. The Wa-kamba people have large herds of cattle, goats, and sheep; they drive these herds into zeribas or stockades, at night, to prevent their capture, in raids by the Masai. The stories of these raids continued to alarm Mr. Thomson's porters, and, in spite of all his watchfulness, two of his men managed to get away. The attempts at desertion were effectually stopped by the circulation of a report that the Masai had occupied the road in the rear, so that all stragglers and deserters would meet certain death. From that time forward the men were kept in their places through fear of being massacred, if once out of protection of the fighting-men of the expedition."
Frank paused a few moments, and gave Fred an opportunity for another question.
"You remarked," said Fred, "that the early explorers of the country in the direction of Mount Kilimanjaro met with little opposition, Rebmann being accompanied by only eight porters and weaponed with an umbrella. How does it happen that later travellers have found the country so much more difficult of access?"
SLAVE CARAVANS ON THE ROAD.
"I forgot to explain that part of it," was the reply. "When Rebmann and Krapf made their journeys the Arabs had not penetrated the country with their slave-hunting expeditions, and consequently the people had not been called to practise the art of war. In the last thirty years the Arabs have pushed far into the interior of Masai Land, just as they have pushed beyond Lake Tanganika and down the valley of the Congo. They have made war upon the natives, burning their villages, devastating their fields, killing those who opposed them and carrying their captives into slavery. The terrible scenes described by Dr. Livingstone, in the accounts of his work and travels, have been repeated over and over again in the region which has Mombasa for its seaport, and thousands of slaves have been shipped from that place to points where they could find a market. The English cruisers along the coast keep a sharp watch for the Arab slave-dhows, and when any slaves are liberated they are taken to Frere Town, as you already know."
"The Arabs set the various tribes to warring against each other," said the Doctor, who had been a listener to the colloquy between the youths, "and were always ready to buy prisoners no matter from which side they were taken. It was estimated that for every slave that reached a market, at least four persons were killed or perished in one way or another. Many were killed in the attacks upon the villages, many of those who escaped captivity perished of hunger in the forest or deserts where they fled for refuge, and of those carried away as slaves, not half ever reached the coast. They died on the road, of hunger or fatigue, or were killed by their owners in consequence of their inability to travel."
"Did the Arabs sometimes leave the weak and sickly ones by the roadside, when they were unable to keep up with the caravans, or did they always kill them?" Fred inquired.
"Sometimes they left them to die or recover, as best they might, and Dr. Livingstone tells how he saw groups of dying people with slave-yokes about their necks, near the road where he travelled. Some of the slave-traders were tender-hearted enough not to take life wantonly, but this was not always the case. Those who looked upon the dreadful traffic purely in the light of business made it a rule to kill every slave who could not keep up with the caravan. They did so not from any special delight in the killing, but because it spurred the survivors on to endure the hardships of the march, and never to yield as long as there was power to drag one foot before the other. Sometimes they tied the unfortunate ones to trees and left them to perish; Dr. Livingstone came frequently upon instances of this barbarity of the Arab slave-dealers."