2l8 THROUGH GASA LAND. 



another tendency, viz. : to render us dissatisfied 

 with a permanent residence, even in the country of 

 our nativity. 



Strange as it may appear when the wanderer 

 returns to the dwellings of civilisation, he forgets 

 the hardships and trials he has suffered, remember- 

 ing only the pleasures he enjoyed in the distant and 

 barbarous lands he has visited. 



Wherever I have been in Africa, the willow tree 

 seems to flourish ; here it was in unusual abundance, 

 more especially where the margin of the river was 

 not fringed with reeds or water-lilies. 



This is as fair a country as any I have seen in 

 my multitudinous wanderings throughout this world, 

 and in many respects resembles the blue-grass 

 regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. Of course in 

 making this statement I do not allude to the heavy- 

 timbered alluvial lands that lay between my position 

 and the Indian Ocean, but to the hills that form the 

 watersheds of the numerous streams that flow to the 

 Mozambique Channel. 



On these foot-hills or high grounds, doubtless 

 coffee, tea, cinchona, and superior tobacco could be 

 abundantly raised ; while, by clearing away the 

 forest on the vast wooded flats, the country would 

 become adapted for the propagation of sugar, opium, 

 indigo, rice, and even cotton. Nor do I think that 

 there would be any difficulty in obtaining labour, as 

 the natives appear most amenable to control, if 



