we moved through it we found that what was smooth to the
eye was very much furrowed by running streams winding
round innumerable knolls. These little brooklets came
down from the range on our left, and the water was deliciously
cool.
Gova had been invaded by the Ajawa under Kainka, now
living at the lakelet Pamalombe, and a party of Babisa,
both eager slave-traders. The consequence of this visitation
was, that, in the spots where women had ventured back
to their former gardens, our appearance was the signal for
instant flight. A very large portion of the land had once
been under cultivation, but it was now abandoned to buffaloes
and elephants. The deep dark euphorbia hedges stood
round the hamlets, and shady trees cast a grateful coolness
over the smooth Boalo, where basket-making, spinning, and
weaving, or dancing, drinking, and gossip formerly went on.
Everything was beautiful to the eye; but no people could
be seen except here and there a few dejected-looking
men. No food could be bought, and but a miserably small
present of wild fruits was brought as the accustomed offering
to strangers. We, therefore, tried to induce some of the
villagers we fell in with to take us over the range on our
left; but, though we.knew that the Maravi lived on its
western side, they stoutly maintained that there were none
within two days of it. Several of the mountain-sides in
this country are remarkably steep, and the loose blocks
on them sharp and- angular, without a trace of weathering.
For a time we considered the angularity of the loose fragments
as evidence that the continent was of comparatively
recent formation, but we afterwards heard the operation actually
going on, by which the boulders are split into these
sharp fragments. The rocks are heated by the torrid sun
during the day to such an extent that one is sometimes
startled on sitting down on them after dusk to find them
quite too hot for the flesh, protected by only thin trousers,
to bear. The thermometer placed, on them rises to 137° in
the sun. These heated surfaces, cooling from without by
the evening air, contract more externally than within, and
the unyielding interior forces off the outer parts, to a
distance of one or two feet. Let any one in a rocky place
observe the fragments that have been thus shot off, and
he will .find in the vicinity pieces from a few ounces
to one or two hundred pounds in weight, which exactly fi
the new surface of the original block; and he may hear in
the evenings among the hills, where sound travels readily,
the ringing echo of the report, which the natives ascribe to
Mchesi or . evil spirits, and the more enlightened to these
natural causes.
It would have been no great feat to have scaled these
mountains without any path to guide u s ; but we could not
afford to waste the time necessary for a prolonged ascent.
Gur provisions were nearly expended, so we pushed onward
to the north, in hopes of finding what we needed there.
We afterwards discovered that the poor people had good
reason for not leading strangers, of whom they knew nothing,
to the storeS'of corn which, after the invasion, they had been
fain to hide amongst the crags of the hills.
When we came abreast of the peak Chirobve, the people
would no longer give us guides. They were afraid of their
enemies, whose dwellings we now had on our east; and,
proceeding without any one to lead us, or to introduce us
to the inhabitants, we were perplexed by all the paths
running zigzag across instead of along the valley. They
had been made by the villagers going from the
hamlets on the slopes to their gardens in the meadows
below. To add to our difficulties, the rivulets and