. The heart of Central Africa; mineral wealth and missionary opportunity. ambove, was helpful for a couple ofweeks in securing information. The country was now as flat as a pancake andeither deep sand or deep swamp. At Sambasambaskraal we found the chief holding court, having awoman on trial. This was the fourth day for ourValovale men, but as they had only intended mak-ing ten miles a day they were sullen and stubborn,insisting that they did not know the way any far-ther and should be paid off and allowed to return. I told them that the understanding had beenthat they were to cross the Lutemw
. The heart of Central Africa; mineral wealth and missionary opportunity. ambove, was helpful for a couple ofweeks in securing information. The country was now as flat as a pancake andeither deep sand or deep swamp. At Sambasambaskraal we found the chief holding court, having awoman on trial. This was the fourth day for ourValovale men, but as they had only intended mak-ing ten miles a day they were sullen and stubborn,insisting that they did not know the way any far-ther and should be paid off and allowed to return. I told them that the understanding had beenthat they were to cross the Lutemwa River withus, and across the Lutemwa they should go. Butwe needed a guide to take us through the badswamps, of which we were having three or more aday. So I asked Sambasamba to give me ordered a young man to go with us, but theyouth flatly refused to go. The other head men,wishing to be rid of us and go on with the trial,joined the chief, but it was nearly an hour beforewe could, all of us combined, get the youth started,and even then he was not in good To THE Kassai. 163 This was the first time I had ever seen suchdisregard for the word of a chief. Usually ayoung man, when told to do a thing by his chief,will obey promptly. But all along here we foundthis same spirit of surly disregard of tribalauthority. While waiting for the guide we found someexcellent specimens of native decoration on the wallof a hut and took a photograph of them. We hadleft the round huts of Central Africa, and foundthe square ones which prevail toward the west we had this guide, we got on the wrongtrail, and when we had gone into the swamp abouta quarter of a mile the natives from the nearestkraal shouted out that by that route we could neverget over, as the water was too deep at the made long delays. I went back to investi-gate the meaning of the shouting, and had to callthem all back and cross the river by another had about two miles of wading in foul
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