bout forty yards wide, waist deep, with many podostemons on
the bottom. The country gets more and more undulating and is covered
with masses of green foliage, chiefly Masuko trees, which have large
hard leaves. There are hippopotami further down the river on its way
to the Loendi. A little rice which had been kept for me I divided, but
some did not taste food.

_13th July, 1866._--A good many stragglers behind, but we push on to
get food and send it back to them. The soil all reddish clay, the
roads baked hard by the sun, and the feet of many of us are weary and
sore: a weary march and long, for it is perpetually up and down now. I
counted fifteen running streams in one day: they are at the bottom of
the valley which separates the ridges. We got to the brow of a ridge
about an hour from Mataka's first gardens, and all were so tired that
we remained to sleep; but we first invited volunteers to go on and buy
food, and bring it back early next morning: they had to be pressed to
do this duty.

_14th July, 1866._--As our volunteers did not come at 8 A.M., I set
off to see the cause, and after an hour of perpetual up and down
march, as I descended the steep slope which overlooks the first
gardens, I saw my friends start up at the apparition--they were
comfortably cooking porridge for themselves! I sent men of Mataka
back with food to the stragglers behind and came on to his town.

An Arab, Sef Rupia or Rubea, head of a large body of slaves, on his
way to the coast, most kindly came forward and presented an ox, bag of
flour, and some cooked meat, all of which were extremely welcome to
half-famished men, or indeed under any circumstances. He had heard of
our want of food and of a band of sepoys, and what could the English
think of doing but putting an end to the slave-trade? Had he seen our
wretched escort, all fear of them would have vanished! He had a large
safari or caravan under him. This body is usually divided into ten or
twelve portions, and all are bound to obey the leader to a certain
extent: in this case there were eleven parties, and the traders
numbered about sixty or seventy, who were dark coast Arabs. Each
underling had his men under him, and when I saw them they were busy
making the pens of branches in which their slaves and they sleep. Sef
came on with me to Mataka's, and introduced me in due form with
discharges of gunpowder. I asked him to come back next morning, and
presented three cloths with a request th