those influences here, the sultans, to increase their own
importance, whilst having me their guest, invariably
gave out that I was no peddling Arab or Msuahili, but
a great Mund^wa, or merchant prince ©f the Waz-
ungu (white or wise men), and the people took the
hint to make me pay or starve. Then again, not
having the Sheikh with me, I had to pay for and
settle everything myself; and from having no variety
of beads in this exclusively bead country, there was
great inconvenience.
Kurua now joined us, and reported the abandoned
donkey dead. A cool shower of rain fell, to the satisfaction
of every thirsty soul. It is delightful, to
observe the freshness which even one partial shower
imparts to all animated nature after a long-continued
drought.
CHAPTER Y.
GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY TRAVERSED— THE HUTS
— THE GEOLOGY— PRODUCTIONS— LAND OF PROMISE— ADVICE
TO MISSIONARIES — LEAVE ULEKAMPURI — RETURN OF THE
EXPEDITION — REGISTER OF TEMPERATURE— WAGES AND
KIT.
24th August.—-D u r i n g the last four days we have
marched fifty-eight miles, and are now at our old village
in Ulekampuri. As we have now traversed all
the ground, I must try to give a short description,
with a few reflections on the general character of all
we have seen or heard, before concluding this diary.
To give a faithful idea of a country, it is better that
the object selected for comparison should incline to
the large and grander scale than to the reverse, otherwise
the reader is apt to form too low an idea of
it. And yet, though this is leaning to the smaller, I
can think of no better comparison for the surface of
this high land than the long sweeping waves of the
Atlantic Ocean; and where the hills are fewest, and
in lines, they resemble small breakers curling on the
tops of the rollers, all irregularly arranged, as though
disturbed by different currents of wind.