on these experiments,
and there is no doubt that the distinct result which he here arrived at
must have a very significant bearing on the question of travel and
transport.

Still passing through the same desolate country, we see that he makes a
note on the forsaken fields and the watch-towers in them. Cucumbers are
cultivated in large quantities by the natives of Inner Africa, and the
reader will no doubt call to mind the simile adopted by Isaiah some 2500
years ago, as he pictured the coming desolation of Zion, likening her to
a "lodge in a garden of cucumbers."[27]]

_11th November, 1872._--Over
gently undulating country, with many old gardens and watch-houses, some
of great height, we reached the River Kalambo, which I know as falling
into Tanganyika. A branch joins it at the village of Mosapasi; it is
deep, and has to be crossed by a bridge, whilst the Kalambo is shallow,
and say twenty yards wide, but it spreads out a good deal.

[Their journey of the _12th_ and _13th_ led them over low ranges of
sandstone and haematite, and past several strongly stockaded villages.
The weather was cloudy and showery--a relief, no doubt, after the
burning heat of the last few weeks. They struck the Halocheche River, a
rapid stream fifteen yards wide and thigh deep, on its way to the Lake,
and arrived at Zombe's town, which is built in such a manner that the
river runs through it, whilst a stiff palisade surrounds it. He says:--]

It was entirely surrounded by M'toka's camp, and a constant fight
maintained at the point where the line of stakes was weakened by the
river running through. He killed four of the enemy, and then Chitimbwa
and Kasonso coming to help him, the siege was raised.

M'toka compelled some Malongwana to join him, and plundered many
villages; he has been a great scourge. He also seems to have made an
attack upon an Arab caravan, plundering it of six bales of cloth and one
load of beads, telling them that if they wanted to get their things back
they must come and help him conquer Zombe. The siege lasted three
months, till the two brothers of Zombe, before-mentioned, came, and then
a complete rout ensued. M'toka left nearly all his guns behind him; his
allies, the Malongwana, had previously made their escape. It is two
months since this rout, so we have been prevented by a kind Providence
from coming soon enough. He was impudent and extortionate before, and
much more now that he has been emboldened by success in