162 ACROSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



February, lias already set in, and several have been lost in the attempt. 

 1^'^^- Consequently, it was not without many prophecies of disaster 

 befalling us that the men ventured to trust themselves on this 

 floating vegetation. However, we found ourselves across it 

 without any accident having happened, and, passing through 

 cultivated grounds and habitations, soon reached the village of 

 Itambara, the head-quarters of the chief of Uvinza. 



Looking back toward the hills we had traversed, their like- 

 ness to an archipelago could not fail to occur to me, the islands 

 being represented by numerous hills detached from each other 

 by narrow gorges, with bluffs, promontories, and cliffs. Many 

 of them had such precipitous sides as to appear, from this dis- 

 tance, quite inaccessible ; but the curling, faint, blue smoke be- 

 tokened the presence of villages nestling under the rocky crags. 

 Taking it all in all, the scene was one of marvelous beauty. 



In Uvinza food of different kinds was plentiful, and we saw 

 many plantations of Indian corn, matama, sweet-potatoes, beans 

 growing on a sort of bush, and tobacco. 



At Itambara we were cordially welcomed by the head-man, 

 who offered us the use of some huts, and, remarking that we 

 must be hungry, brought a goat and some fowls for myself, and 

 flour for my men. Mhongo was paid here for permission to 

 cross the Malagarazi. The amount was very heavy, but I was 

 assured it would clear us with the mutwale at Ugaga — where 

 the ferry is — and that I should only have to reward the canoe- 

 men. Mutwale is the title given throughout Uvinza and some 

 of the neighboring districts to the chief of a single village. 



A day was consumed in arranging this matter, and drying 

 clothing and stores, which had suffered much from the rains 

 we had experienced, and another was lost- by the obstinacy of 

 Bombay, who would not get the men together. 



My lameness prevented my moving about among the men 

 and forcing them to start, and Bombay, as an excuse for his fol- 

 ly, continually reiterated, "Food cheap here, master; better 

 stop another day." And stop we did, though, for the life of me, 

 I could not understand the economy of remaining an extra day 

 in a place doing nothing, simply to save about one-sixth of our 

 ordinary daily expenses. 



The head-man brought the chief, a boy about eight years of 



