June 17th. Last night my cabin box was taken out of my room by native robbers. It was a fine night and I had dragged my bed outside and was sleeping by the door: my passport and note of credit I luckily had under my pillow; the box was taken into the bushes two hundred yards away and broken open there and rifled. The rascals had covered the ground round my bed with bottles so that my first movements would be impeded if, by chance, I happened to waken. This kind of thing makes one very bitter; certainly in my case, as I leave Africa to-morrow, the last retort was theirs.
I remember G. C.'s wise saws, "You will find no virtue under a black hide." "Fear rules the world—Fear—Fear."
June 18th. Paid my bill and away to the steamer—a hospital ship—everything under the military. Large wards for passengers, some with as many as ninety berths.
June 19th. Precisely at half past four in the afternoon the S.S. Rufus Castle set sail from Kilindini harbour; her siren made the whole boat tremble, as slowly, silently she got under way.
A fine rain was falling, it was growing dark; white horses were upon the open sea, and it looked grey and ominous and desolately unfrequented. I did not forget my good fortune as standing by myself I watched the coast recede.
June 26th. Arrived at Durban this morning. Walked with L. to the sea front and was made aware of the fact that I had not yet escaped. I never have seen such faces, without a trace of refinement, without a trace of sensibility, without a trace of distinction, of individuality, sharp, predatory, colonial, commonplace, no difference whatever; all exactly the same. Small wonder the true values of life have been forgotten and that an energetic preoccupation with the material world is their only real interest. It will require generations before these parochial, acquisitive minds can become even partially civilized. The very position of the chairs on their famous front proclaim their essential philistinism; rows upon rows of them with their backs to the sea.
June 27th. To the Zoo with L.: far the best place we have yet found. We saw a wonderful monkey; its rainbow-coloured, lewd,
