reeds. Trails of this kind seemed to go in every direction
excepting the right one. Not one of the party knew the
route, for at the last village we had passed the limit of our
guide’s geographical knowledge of this region.
We soon found ourselves, however, in the southern bight
of the lake, a lovely spot where the hank sloped gently to
the shingled shore, and the glancing waters gave invitation
to an invigorating bath. It was a place upon which nature
had bestowed her richest attractions, seemingly on behalf
of wayworn travellers, who under the drooping luxuriant
trees could find shelter from the garish sun. Butterflies,
the most beautiful it has ever been my lot to see, were
here fluttering brilliantly in the air.
The plagues, toils, and woes of the previous few days
had affected me more ruefully than the worst experiences of
any former stage in my travels. The heat had been more
oppressive, and had a more exhausting effect than I had as
yet suffered from.
Food, of any kind, was extremely bad. We had not been
able to procure anything eatable since the previous day, when
the rations had been lamentably limited as well as insipid ;
my share consisting of copious draughts of green tea.
In this torrid zone the Angoni felt the change of temperature
sadly, for it made a bad comparison with the high and,
so far, healthy lands of the plateaus. Streaming with
perspiration they no sooner saw the gleam of the clear
water than they instantaneously cast aside their light loads
and plunged headlong into its inviting embrace, where
they merrily romped like black Tritons glorying in the
coolness of the caressing waters.
The arrival at this southern bay had occupied more time
than I had calculated upon, so I could not allow much time
for sport, and therefore no sooner was the bathing over
than we again dived into the jungle thicket. It seemed to
me as if we were describing a circle, sometimes falling into
indentations like ditches in the broken ground, and filled
with high sappy reeds, until after an hour of aimless
rambling and scrambling a village was sighted. Here I
took the lead, and marching at the head of the line soon
reached the centre of the town. Our arrival evidently
astonished the people, but they were quite friendly on
seeing the white man.
Possibly it was cruel not to have stayed at this village to
rest and buy meal for a ll; but in spite of our starving
condition such a delay was undesirable, for the actions of
the Angoni could not be depended upon. A few gourds of
pombe were bought, after which liquid encouragement we
proceeded on our way, and soon turned our backs upon the
southern extremity of the lake, so that when the shades of
evening were falling we found ourselves entering the
village of Mpanga, only five miles south of Living'stonia.
For the first time in the long and toilsome journey my
head ached; I felt tired, sick, dead beat in fact. But
anxiety had left me, and in its place came the confidence
that there were barely two leagues between our party and
relief, plenty, and a hearty welcome.
Orders were at once given to Mara to buy all that was
wanted, and to give everybody plenty to eat, for I could
now afford to dole out the humble remainder of my dry
goods wealth. .
I then devoted my somewhat jaded energies to securing
a little comfort for myself; but found it an unusually
difficult task to make much of my bed, an operation which
meant the rolling out of my blanket on the hard mud floor
under the verandah of a small oblong hut. I do not mention
the hard bed as a suffering, for I had slept upon the