then he broke out pure unmitigated Exeter Hall! You never heard anything
like it! All men were brothers, and God loved a black man as well as a
white; Mashonas and Matabele were poor ignorant folk, and we had to take
care of them. And then he started out, that we ought to let this man go;
we ought to give him food for the road, and tell him to go back to his
people, and tell them we hadn't come to take their land but to teach them
and love them. 'It's hard to love a nigger, Captain, but we must try it;
we must try it!'--And every five minutes he'd break out with, 'And I think
this is a man I know, Captain; I'm not sure, but I think he comes from up
Lo Magundis way!'--as if any born devil cared whether a bloody nigger came
from Lo Magundis or anywhere else! I'm sure he said it fifteen times. And
then he broke out, 'I don't mean that I'm better than you or anybody else,
Captain; I'm as bad a man as any in camp, and I know it.' And off he
started, telling us all the sins he'd ever committed; and he kept on, 'I'm
an unlearned, ignorant man, Captain; but I must stand by this nigger; he's
got no one else!' And then he says--'If you let me take him up to Lo
Magundis, sir, I'm not afraid; and I'll tell the people there that it's not
their land and their women that we want, it's them to be our brothers and
love us. If you'll only let me go, sir, I'll go and make peace; give the
man to me, sir!'" The Colonial shook with laughter.

"What did the Captain say?" asked the Englishman.

"The Captain; well, you know the smallest thing sets him off swearing all
round the world; but he just stood there with his arms hanging down at each
side of him, and his eyes staring, and his face getting redder and redder:
and all he could say was, 'My Gawd! my Gawd!' I thought he'd burst. And
Halket stood there looking straight in front of him, as though he didn't
see a soul of us all there."