f undue curiosity, every man deferentially
saluted them, and all were willing, even eager, to do them service.

The character of the country, although it could not by any stretch of
the imagination be described as mountainous, maintained its rugged
character almost to the end of the journey, consisting of a constant
succession of low hills, or ridges, mostly of granite formation, divided
from each other by broad, fertile, well-watered valleys, dotted here and
there with villages which, as the travellers advanced, gradually drew
closer together and increased in importance.

It was as the travellers surmounted a certain ridge, about an hour and a
half before the time of their midday halt, that they caught their first
glimpse of the sea since losing sight of it on their departure from
Lourenco Marques. It stretched away to right and left and in front of
them, a narrow, faint, grey streak, softly shimmering under the beams of
the noontide sun; and between it and the observers lay a wide-
stretching, level, grassy plain, in the midst of which appeared
numberless irregularities that, viewed through their powerful glasses,
assumed the aspect of architectural ruins of enormous massiveness and
strength. But they were some ten miles distant, and through the highly
rarefied atmosphere that intervened it was impossible to obtain any very
clear conception of their character, except that they were undoubtedly
of human origin and of quite unexpected extent. One thing, however, was
certain, in the light of Menzies' story, as recounted to them by his and
their friend Mitchell, those enormous ruins could be none other than the
remains of the ancient Ophir mentioned in Holy Writ; and the two friends
sent up a shout of irrepressible exultation at the thought that they had
advanced thus far upon their difficult journey without mishap of any
kind. They were now all eagerness and impatience to reach those
wonderful ruins; but the oxen were tired and hungry, having already been
trekking for more than two hours; moreover, they took no interest in
archaeology, and preferred an acre of rich grass to the finest ruins in
the world, therefore it became imperative to outspan as soon as the
wagon had plunged down into the plain far enough to reach the first
watercourse. But Grosvenor and Maitland were not long in arriving at
the decision to saddle up and ride forward as soon as they had partaken
of a hasty tiffin.

This resolution they duly car