would lose his head; was it not better he should pay one hundred cows
All agreeing to this, the young man said he would do so, and quietly
allowed the skin to be untied and taken off by the ruffians.

Next day, after crossing more of those abominable rush-drains, whilst
in sight of the Victoria N'yanza, we ascended the most beautiful hills,
covered with verdure of all descriptions. At Meruka, where I put up,
there resided some grandees, the chief of whom was the king's aunt. She
sent me a goat, a hen, a basket of eggs, and some plantains, in return
for which I sent her a wire and some beads. I felt inclined to stop here
a month, everything was so very pleasant. The temperature was perfect.
The roads, as indeed they were everywhere, were as broad as our
coach-roads, cut through the long grasses, straight over the hills and
down through the woods in the dells--a strange contrast to the wretched
tracks in all the adjacent countries. The huts were kept so clean and
so neat, not a fault could be found with them--the gardens the same.
Wherever I strolled I saw nothing but richness, and what ought to
be wealth. The whole land was a picture of quiescent beauty, with a
boundless sea in the background. Looking over the hills, it struck the
fancy at once that at one period the whole land must have been at
a uniform level with their present tops, but that by the constant
denudation it was subjected to by frequent rains, it had been cut
down and sloped into those beautiful hills and dales which now so much
pleased the eye; for there were none of those quartz dykes I had seen
protruding through the same kink of aqueous formations in Usui and
Karague; nor were there any other sorts of volcanic disturbance to
distort the calm quiet aspect of the scene.

From this, the country being all hill and dale, with miry rush-drains
in the bottoms, I walked, carrying my shoes and stockings in my
hands, nearly all the way. Rozaro's "children" became more and more
troublesome, stealing everything they could lay their hands upon out
of the village huts we passed on the way. On arrival at Sangua, I found
many of them had been seized by some men who, bolder than the rest,
had overtaken them whilst gutting their huts, and made them prisoners,
demanding of me two slaves and one load of beads for their restitution.
I sent my men back to see what had happened, and ordered them to bring
all the men on to me, that I might see fair play. They, however, took