as really broiling
among the rocks. No rain had fallen, and the grass being
generally burned off, the heat rose off the black ashes as if
out of an oven, yet the flowers persisted in coming out of
the burning soil, and generally without leaves, as if it had
been a custom that they must observe by a law of the Medes
and Persians. This part detained us long; the men's limbs
were affected with a sort of subcutaneous
inflammation,--black rose or erysipelas,--and when I proposed
mildly and medically to relieve the tension it was too
horrible to be thought of, but they willingly carried the
helpless. Then we mounted up at once into the high, cold
region Urungu, south of Tanganyika, and into the middle of
the rainy season, with well-grown grass and everything
oppressively green; rain so often that no observations could
be made, except at wide intervals. I could form no opinion as
to our longitude, and but little of our latitudes. Three of
the Baurungu chiefs, one a great friend of mine, Nasonso, had
died, and the population all turned topsy-turvy, so I could
make no use of previous observations. They elect sisters' or
brothers' sons to the chieftainship, instead of the
heir-apparent. Food was not to be had for either love
or money.

"I was at the mercy of guides who did not know their own
country, and when I insisted on following the compass, they
threatened, 'no food for five or ten days in that line.' They
brought us down to the back or north side of Bangweolo, while
I wanted to cross the Chambeze and go round its southern
side. So back again southeastward we had to bend. The
Portuguese crossed this Chambeze a long time ago, and are
therefore the first European discoverers. We were not black
men with Portuguese names like those for whom the feat of
crossing the continent was eagerly claimed by Lisbon
statesmen. Dr. Lacerda was a man of scientific attainments,
and Governor of Tette, but finding Cazembe at the rivulet
called Chungu, he unfortunately succumbed to fever ten days
after his arrival. He seemed anxious to make his way across
to Angola. Misled by the similarity of Chambeze to Zambesi,
they all thought it to be a branch of the river that flows
past Tette, Senna, and Shupanga, by Luabo and Kongone to
the sea.

"