of sweet-scented pinkish flowers perfume the air with a
rich fragrance; its seeds produce a fine drying oil, and
the bark of the smaller branches yields a fibre finer and
stronger than flax; with whieh the natives make their nets
for fishing. Bonga, the brother of the rebel Mariano, and
now at the head of the revolted natives, with some of
his principal men came to see us, and were perfectly
friendly, though told of our having carried the sick Governor
across to Shupanga, and of our having cured him of fever.
On our acquainting Bonga with the object of the expedition,
he remarked that we should suffer no hindrance
from his people in our good work. He sent us a present
of rice, two sheep, and a quantity of fire-wood. He
never tried to make any use of us in the strife; the other
side showed less confidence, by carefully cross-questioning
our pilot whether we had sold any powder to the enemy.
We managed, however, to keep on good terms with both
rebels and Portuguese.
Being unable to take the steamer up the shoal channel
along which Senna stands, we anchored at Nyaruka, a small
hamlet of blacks, six miles below, and walked up to
Senna next morning. The narrow winding footpath, along
which we had to march in Indian file, lay through gardens
and patches of wood, the loftiest trees being thorny acacias.
The sky was cloudy, the air cool and pleasant, and the
little birds, in the gladness of their hearts, poured forth
sweet strange songs, which, though equal to those of the
singing birds at home on a spring morning, yet seemed,
somehow, as if in a foreign tongue. We met many natives
on the road. Most of the men were armed with spears, bows
and arrows, or old Tower muskets; the women had short-
handled iron hoes, and were going to work in the gardens;
~.,r-mr<aT ABOVE SENNA WITH THE SADDLE-SHAPED MA-ROBERT IN THE ZAMBESI ABOVE bEJNJNA, w i x n HILL KEVRAMISA
IN THE DISTANCE.