66 ACROSS AFEICA. [Chap. 



May, camped on a slope almost as steep as tlie roof of a house, that 

 1873. being the most level spot we could iind. 



Consequently we were obliged to chock up our " rolling 

 stock," to jjrevent their starting for the Makata plain, some 

 eight hundred feet below. 



Several men complaining of illness and weakness, we re-ar- 

 ranged loads. This employed us until late in the evening, 

 when the askari whom I had sent in search of deserters re- 

 turned w^ithout having obtained any news of them. 



Leaving here the next morning, without difficulty we made a 

 long and fatiguing march over very mountainous country to a 

 camp on the left bank of the Mukondokwa — the principal af- 

 fluent of the Makata — meeting on our way a large Arab cara- 

 van taking ivory to the coast. 



The leader, a very miserable-looking wretch, unhesitatingly 

 asked us for a bale of cloth ; but when that modest request was 

 politely refused, lowered his demands and begged for a single 

 doti. 



From him we heard that Mirambo, a chief to the west of Un- 

 yanyembe, who had been fighting the Arabs for some three or 

 four years, was still unconquered ; for, although all the Arabs 

 at Taborah, aided by numerous native allies, had taken the Held 

 against him, they had been unable to drive him from the vicin- 

 ity of their settlements. Traveling round about Taborah was 

 therefore considered dangerous. The road was a succession of 

 very steep ascents and descents, worn in many places into steps 

 composed of quartz and granite, either in slippery sheets or 

 loose blocks, that rendered walking very difficult indeed ; and 

 it was almost a marvel that the pagazi and donkeys, with their 

 loads, avoided coming to grief. 



Our camp was on an uncomfortable slope, even steeper than 

 that of the previous night, and every thing seemed inclined to 

 follow the universal law of gravity. 



Just below flowed the Mukondokwa, a broad and shallow 

 but swift stream ; and the hills, covered to their summits with 

 acacias, looked, as Burton justly observes, much like umbrellas 

 in a crowd ; and in the dips and valleys, where water was plen- 

 tiful, the mparamusi reared its lofty head. 



The mparamusi is one of the noblest specimens of arboreal 



