on her and her efforts, when foolish negroes triumphed
over her by the use of a twig or two.
I swayed myself over the flimsy bridges and found
a third stream, in which the water rushed swiftly; but
it was shallow, and, as the Wakamba had placed a
guide rope across it, we reached the further bank
without difficulty. The second of the two streams
was worse, and threw up more spray; so I decided
not to cross it by the bridge, but to go over by
means of the rocks, until I reached a spot near the
first falls, where, the stream being wider and the current
less swift, I thought I might swim the beasts
across. The whole day was spent in engineering
work, and by dark I had constructed two strong
bridges across the chasms thirty and thirty-five feet
wide respectively, and had placed a guide rope across
the stream where it was necessary to swim the beasts.
The construction of this bridge I found to be a matter
of the greatest difficulty, unskilled as I was in
engineering. W e could not span the stream with a
single lo g ; so it was necessary first to run a log as
far as possible over the stream, then to creep slowly
and cautiously to the end of this log and seize
another and slighter pole shoved toward one from
the rear, which was bound to the end of the first log
so strongly that it was able to support it. Numbers
of small poles were added to this, until at length a
man was able to cross. AA^ith this as a base, we managed
to construct a bridge ten feet wide, and strong
enough to bear the weight of our donkeys and cattle.
A t 5.30 a .m . the following day the men were set to
work carrying the loads across. The twenty donkeys