of this great novelty, I tried to purchase its head, but
the greedy savages who caught it, coveting the flesh,
would not, for any consideration, let me have it, and
I never saw another killed. Rain poured down in
torrents at night, and the days remained so cloudy,
that we felt the kuzi or little monsoon had now fairly
set in, and the sooner we could get away from the
high lands so much the better for us. In the evening
(15th February), therefore, we sent our return
presents to the king, and asked permission to be
allowed to go. A very civil reply was given, with
certain additions, for which I could not help admiring
him; but he would not accept the present, and
we might go whenever we pleased.
Thinking to obviate to the best of my ability any
differences with these benighted but cunning people,
and to leave as favourable an impression of our visit
as I could, I advised Captain Burton to distribute
amongst the ministers those things which had been
brought for the king, and this accordingly was done,
but not without considerable debate, and the finally
reluctant sanction of the king.* The next morning
(16th February) saw us descending the heights of
Fuga, and in a few hours’ walk we left the cool congenial
air incidental to 4000 or 5000 feet, for the
hot, damp, morbid, close atmosphere of the jungle
plains below, in which, as Miss Nightingale would
say, you could palpably smell a fever. Then foliow-
* The officers of state cannot receive a present without the sanction
of the government.
ing the old route, we came down to the Pangani; and
in three days’ travelling along it, as Captain Burton,
being no sportsman, would not stop for shooting, we
put up once more at Kohod^, with Sultan Momba.
19th February.—To vary the wray and gain a better
knowledge of the river, we now determined to
follow it all the way down to Chogue, which we made
on the third day, spending the two intervening nights
at the Wazegura villages of Kiranga and Kizungu.
The valley, though much varied, was generally contracted
by the closing in of the rolling terminal abutments
of the Tongud hill, on the one side-—with
rising land, and little conical hills almost joining,
which overhung the river on the right bank in Uze-
gura, on the other side. We seldom met any people
on the line of march ; and the land being totally uncultivated,
excepting in the immediate vicinity of
these villages, we felt as though we were travelling
through a desert wild of dreary jungle—which, indeed,
it was. No animals, and scarcely any birds, moved
about to cheer and keep the road alive ; and all was
silent, save the constant gurgling, rumbling sound of
the river’s waters as they rushed rapidly over boulders
and often plunged down many little falls in the bed
of the stream. On passing the point opposite to
Tongu£ Fort, we saw the cause which produced the
sound like a cataract, which formerly we had heard
when standing on its summit. It was, indeed, a cascade
of considerable dimensions, and would, doubtless,
be a sight of pleasing grandeur when the river is full.