wind, sweeping great grey clouds across tlie heavens, shutting
out the fierce rays of the withering sun, and letting us
breathe again with refreshing ease.
We leave Chibinga. Our line of march is eastward,
across the wide, sandy rivers Msingua and Mkumbura.
Onwards we travel, and form our night camp on the verge of
some small wells which have been dug in a slow rivulet of
muddy silt. Around us is the mopani forest, above which
the tall baobab is seen towering high over the stunted
growth of: other trees. Amid the waving branches and
fluttering , leaves, the zephyrs of evening sigh and whisper
their swelling melody of nature.
Southward the Makomwe mountains, outlined in faintest
blue, stand boldly above the forest line. They recall to
my memory stirring days passed under the shadows of
their rockbound crests. Yes! at last we are well on
our way, and the panorama of the eventful past glides
its recording pictures vividly and swiftly through my
thoughts.
Adieu to thee, Chibinga! The tsetse and the thorn are
thy fittest symbols. Adieu to thy ebony damsels! Adieu
to they griefs and cares, thy pangs and joys I
I will ever remember the long and toilsome marches over
thy parched river beds, moistureless through the fiery
breath of the relentless sun. I will ever remember the
wild weirdness of the notes of thy free and thoughtless sons
reverberating through the stilly night, the rhythmic .throb
of the tom tom mingling with the harmonious and gleeful
shouts of thy people.
Nor shall I forget the great feast. The Msenga jugglers,
and their wild, ape-like dance; those long hunts m thy
stubborn forests and jungles, amidst whose thorns I strived
to find food to keep the wolfish crowd in peace. Above all
I shall not forget those awful nights in thy den with
four blackened walls, where utter filth prevailed, and
where creatures innumerable and loathsome crawled on
the earth, or jumped and played in sportive glee in the
noxious air.
Adieu, Chibinga! Gladly, indeed, do I relegate thy
pains to the memories of the p a s t!