Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

FIRST FEARS JUSTIFIED 7
the breezy uplands of Bihe. But Mr. Negro looks on
with ineffable complacency, and refuses to league with
Nature in favour of outsiders. At this early stage he
knows little and cares less for Mr. Missionary ; what he
does seem sure about is that the sun rises and sets for
No. 1 alone. Yet let us give him his due. Unlike the
Saxons, Danes, and Jutes who were invited by the ancient
Britons to enter England, here you have the black-but-
comely African honestly warning you off both his soil
and his soul. Frankly saying in so many looks if not so
many words that he would rather have your room than
your company. Why should he scrape and bow to
persons with no more fingers and toes than he has
himself?
A new land, however, really means a new vocabulary,
and here with this mention of " road " in Africa we must
pause to define our terms. The substantive " road " pre-
sents its compliments to the English-speaking public and
hereby notifies a new aspect of its dictionary meaning.
For just as you throw away your Bradshaw when you
leave the land of trains, so neither Webster nor Nuttall
can tell you what an African **road" is. Though it is
the true trunk road to the vast Interior, yet the real
name for this thing is a " trail," literally a trivial trail the
size of a cart-wheel rut. And so it comes about that here
at the Benguella doorway you get your initial surprise
that this Africa for thousands of twisty miles ahead is a
land wholly innocent of roads, and boasts only this cart-
wheel rut as a highway. " Goat-walks" is the real idea,