134: THE TLAGUE IN ASHIRA-LAND. Chap. VII. 



become a gloomy valley of the dead ; each village was 

 a charnel-house. Wherever I walked, the most heart- 

 rending sights met my view. The poor victims of 

 the loathsome disease in all its worst stages lay about 

 in sheds and huts ; there were hideous sores filled 

 witli maggots, and swarms of carrion flies buzzed 

 about the living but putrid carcases. The stencli in 

 the neighbourhood of the huts was insupportable. 

 Some of the sick were raving, and others emaciated, 

 with sunken eyes, victims of hunger as well as of 

 disease. Many wretched creatures from other vil- 

 lages were abandoned to die in the bush. How I 

 bewailed my hard fate, and wished myself back amid 

 the health and comforts of Europe, even though it 

 were only as a street-sweeper in one of its cities ! 



To add to my sorrows and losses in this unhappy 

 time, one of my Commi boys, Retonda, sickened and 

 died. His disease was not, however, the prevailing 

 epidemic, but a kind of cholic attended with violent 

 vomiting. He was the only one of my Commi body- 

 guard that I lost on the journey ; he was a plucky 

 fellow, and I felt much his loss. We buried him, 

 wrapped up in a mat, with the usual honours, firing 

 a salute over his grave. 



A few days before the death of Olenda, a number 

 of men, sent by the king, arrived from Mayolo's 

 town in Otando. The news they brought was not 

 very favourable to the prospect of my onward march. 

 There had been a meeting of tlie head men to consider 

 the matter of my visit ; and the conclusion arrived at 

 was that I ought not to be allowed to come, seeing 



