XIII.] 



AN UNPLEASANT MARCH. 



169 



During the night we were disturbed by a great noise among 

 the donkeys, and found that one had been pinned by the nose 

 by some wild beast, but hickily without doing mnch damage, 

 the donkey being more frightened than hurt. 



The next three marches were through a mixture of jungle, 

 long grass, and occasional outcrops of granite. On the lirst, we 

 passed ten small streams besides the Paiguvu, which was twen- 

 ty feet wide and four feet six inches deep ; on the second, one 

 more ; and on the third, the Masungwe. There were many 

 tracks of buffalo and elephants, and we several times heard the 

 latter trumpeting in the jungle. In some places the grass was 



0R08BING RU8UGI. 



of great length, far above our heads, and the pouring rain made 

 the^work of forcing our way through this wet and heavy grass 

 most laborious and unpleasant. 



After arriving in camp on the third day, I had a general in- 

 spection of the men's private loads, and found that ten had been 

 guilty of stealing my beads. This I had long suspected, but 

 Bombay always persisted that nothing of the sort was going on. 

 I firmly believe the whole caravan had been systematically rob- 

 bing me, and that those I detected with the stolen goods were 

 not really more guilty, but only more unfortunate, than the 

 rest. I took possession of the beads thus recovered, and made 

 prisoners of the thieves. 



