340 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



we should simply have starved to death. In this 

 strait there was nothing to be done but to part com- 

 pany ; so, leaving Owen with two whole pieces of 

 calico and only two boys to feed, I took the remaining 

 half-piece and all the rest of our boys, and pushed 

 on, intending to send him back help on my arrival at 

 Mendon^a's. From where we parted there was a 

 good footpath from town to town all the way back 

 to the Zambesi ; and, as Owen had only himself and 

 two boys to feed, he had calico enough to buy all he 

 wanted, travelling at his own pace as slowly as he 

 liked, and thus not knocking himself up by over- 

 exertion. 



February loth. — Parted with Owen, and walked 

 hard all day, reaching just at sundown the little town 

 where we had eaten our miserable Christmas dinner. 

 In the afternoon, being hot, I imprudently bathed in 

 a stream of cold runningr water. Whether it was 

 owing to this or to over-exertion, I do not know, 

 but that night 1 felt hot and feverish, and could not 

 sleep, and knew I had another relapse of fever. For 

 two days I pushed on, but then became so ill and 

 weak that I had to lie still the following day. After 

 crossing the Chongwe, I took a road to the right 

 hand of that we came by, and passed two kraals with 

 cattle ; these cattle, however, were much larger than 

 any at Sitanda's, being like those I had seen in the 

 Mashuna country to the south of the Zambesi. 



February iSt/i. — At last, thoroughly worn out 

 with the fatigue of journeying through the high 

 mountains which skirt the river, I once more reached 

 the Zambesi, and, crossing over to Canyemba's island, 

 slept there. During the whole of the return journey 

 I never shot a head of game, being too ill and weak 

 to go after those I saw. 



