loose, rushed down to it and drank eagerly,
though I was afraid it would produce disease among them. Poor
creatures! if there was nourishment in it, it was the only food they
got; for that night we had to camp without water for ourselves or fodder
for them.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

CROSSING THE DESERT.

Many days had passed by, during which the usual incidents of African
travel had occurred; but I need not stop to describe them, except to say
that Mr Fraser had been successful in killing several elephants, which
he did for the sake of their tusks, and also in purchasing a large
quantity of ivory from the natives who visited our camp to trade, or
inhabited the villages near which we passed. Thus he had no reason to
complain of the long journey he had made to rescue us, although we were
not the less inclined to be grateful to him.

The country ravaged by the locusts had been passed at last, but not till
our cattle were almost starved, and we and they had suffered greatly
from want of water. The dried and pounded locusts had assisted to
support our people, but we were now greatly in want of provisions.
Stanley had borne the journey remarkably well, and was rapidly
recovering from the hurts inflicted upon him by the lion; while Leo and
Natty were completely themselves again. Stanley was very anxious once
more to mount his horse and to assist in hunting, in order to supply the
camp with food; but of this David would not hear, and declared that it
would be equivalent to fratricide if he allowed it. Donald, Timbo, and
I, and sometimes Senhor Silva, therefore scoured the country in every
direction in search of game. Donald and I were riding on ahead one day,
when he observed on a bush a fly somewhat smaller than the common
blue-bottle fly--so annoying to the butcher--but with rather longer
wings. Begging me to hold his horse, he jumped off and caught it.
Instantly leaping into his saddle, he told me to turn and ride for my
life, with an expression of consternation in his countenance which made
me fancy that he had suddenly gone out of his mind. However, as we rode
on he explained that the fly which he held in his fingers was the tsetse
fly (David called it the _Glossina morsitans_), and that it was more
dangerous to cattle and horses than all the lions and snakes in the
country. Fortunately our horses had not been bitten by it. He told me
that had such been the case their death would have been certain. It
attac