He could not be moved on the 16th, so I marched across the plain and put up in some villages on its western side.

Whilst waiting for the sheikh's arrival, some villagers at night stole several loads of beads, and ran off with them; but my men, finding the theft out in time, hunted them down, and recovered all but one load--for the thieves had thrown their loads down as soon as they found they were hotly pursued.
Early this morning I called all the head men of the village together, and demanded the beads to be restored to me; for, as I was living with them, they were responsible, according to the laws of the country.

They acknowledged the truth and force of my demand, and said they would each give me a cow as an earnest, until their chief, who was absent, arrived.
This, of course, was objected to, as the chief, in his absence, must have deputed some one to govern for him, and I expected him to settle at once, that I might proceed with the march.

Then selecting five of my head men to conduct the case, with five of their elders, it was considered my losses were equivalent to thirty head of cattle.

As I remitted the penalty to fifteen head, these were made over to me, and we went on with the march--all feeling delighted with the issue but the Hottentots, who, not liking the loss of the second fifteen cows, said that in Kafirland, where the laws of the country are the same as here, the whole would have been taken, and, as it was, they thought I was depriving them of their rights to beef.
By a double march, the sheikh riding in a hammock slung on a pole, we now made Kuale, or "Partridge" nullah, which, crossing the road to the northward, drains these lands to the Malagarazi river, and thence into the Tanganyika lake.