He marked them in their rude advance, He hushed their rebel cheers; With one extremely vulgar glance He broke the Mutineers. (I have a picture in my book Of how he quelled them with a look.) We shot and hanged a few, and then The rest became devoted men. And here I wish to say a word Upon the way my heart was stirred By those pathetic faces. Surely our simple duty here Is both imperative and clear; While they support us, we should lend Our every effort to defend, And from a higher point of view To give the full direction due To all the native races. And I, throughout the expedition, Insisted upon this position. [Illustration ** Our three travellers with guns riding piggy-back on three Africans’ shoulders.] VII. Well, after that we toiled away At drawing maps, and day by day Blood made an accurate survey Of all that seemed to lend A chance, no matter how remote, Of letting our financier float That triumph of Imagination, “The Libyan Association.” In this the “Negroes’ friend” Was much concerned to show the way Of making Missionaries pay. At night our leader and our friend Would deal in long discourses Upon this meritorious end, And how he would arrange it. “The present way is an abuse Of Economic Forces; They Preach, but they do not Produce. Observe how I would change it. I’d have the Missionary lent, Upon a plot of land, A sum at twenty-five per cent.; And (if I understand The kind of people I should get) An ever-present fear of debt Would make them work like horses, And form the spur, or motive spring, In what I call ‘developing The Natural resources’; While people who subscribe will find Profit and Piety combined.” [Illustration ** Man with ox and plow, tilling a rocky field.] Imagine how the Mighty Scheme, The Goal, the Vision, and the Dream Developed in his hands! With such a purpose, such a mind Could easily become inclined To use the worst of lands! Thus once we found him standing still, Enraptured, on a rocky hill; Beneath his feet there stank A swamp immeasurably wide, Wherein a kind of fœtid tide Rose rhythmical and sank, Brackish and pestilent with weeds And absolutely useless reeds, It lay; but nothing daunted At seeing how it heaved and steamed He stood triumphant, and he seemed Like one possessed or haunted. [Illustration ** Blood standing on an outcropping viewing a vast swamp, waving his hat.]