"As you wish," said Sanders. With an escort of four Houssas, and fifty carriers recruited from the neighbouring villages, the Hon. George departed into the interior, and Sanders saw him off. "I cannot, of course, guarantee your life," he said, at parting, "and I must warn you that the Government will not be responsible for any injury that comes to you." "I understand," said the Hon. George knowingly, "but I am not to be deterred. I come from a stock----" "I dare say," Sanders cut his genealogical reminiscences short; "but the last traveller who was 'chopped' in the bush was a D'Arcy, and his people came over with the Conqueror." The correspondent took the straight path to Lukati, and at the end of the third day's march came to the village of Mfabo, where lived the great witch-doctor, Kelebi. George pitched his camp outside the village, and, accompanied by his four Houssas, paid a call upon the chief, which was one of the first mistakes he made, for he should have sent for the chief to call upon him; and if he called upon anybody, he should have made his visit to the witch-doctor, who was a greater man than forty chiefs. In course of time, however, he found himself squatting on the ground outside the doctor's house, engaged, through the medium of the interpreter he had brought from Sierra Leone, in an animated conversation with the celebrated person. "Tell him," said George to his interpreter, "that I am a great white chief whose heart bleeds for the native." "Is he a good man?" asked George. The witch-doctor, with the recollection of Sanders' threat, said "No!" "Why?" asked the Hon. George eagerly. "Does he beat the people?" Not only did he beat the people, explained the witch-doctor with relish, but there were times when he burnt them alive. "This is a serious charge," said George, wagging his head warningly; nevertheless he wrote with rapidity in his diary:-- "Interviewed Kelebi, respected native doctor, who states: "'I have lived all my life in this district, and have never known so cruel a man as Sandi (Sanders). I remember once he caused a man to be drowned, the man's name I forget; on another occasion he burned a worthy native alive for refusing to guide him and his Houssas through the forest. I also remember the time when he put a village to the fire, causing the people great suffering. "'The people of the country groan under his oppressions, for from time to time he comes demanding money and crops, and if he does not receive all that he asks for he flogs the villagers until they cry aloud.'" (I rather suspect that there is truth in the latter statement, for Sanders finds no little difficulty in collecting the hut-tax, which is the Government's due.) George shook his head when he finished writing. "This," he said, "looks very bad." He shook hands with the witch-doctor, and that aged villain looked surprised, and asked a question in the native tongue.