302 ACROSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



October, I requested her to provide me with guides to different places 

 l^*^*- in the neighborhood which J wished to visit, but she said I 

 ought to remain until Kasongo returned, for, although she was 

 vested with supreme power during his absence, yet he might be 

 displeased if I went away before seeing him. Finally I overcame 

 her scruples, and she promised to give me a guide to Mohrya. 



I afterward called on Alvez, and found his camp a wretched- 

 ly dirty place. His own was the only hut more substantially 

 built than those temporarily erected day by day when trav- 

 eling. It had puddled walls and a high-thatched roof, being 

 thus made more secure against lire than the ordinary grass hut. 

 Inside it was dirty and close, the only light and air being ad- 

 mitted through the door; and, with a lire burning in the centre 

 while the thermometer ranged from ninety to one hundred de- 

 grees in the shade, the temjjerature of this dwelling may be im- 

 agined. 



Alvez was profuse in his offers of assistance, and assured 

 me he desired to get as quickly as possible to Kassanci, which 

 would be a march of about two months, and thence Loanda 

 might be reached in thirty days, or less if a passage in a Kwan- 

 za steamer were obtained. 



On the 30th of October, I started with a small party for Lake 

 Mohrya. The guide given me by Fume a Kenna had one arm 

 amputated at the elbow, and he was very careful to inform me 

 that this operation had been performed on account of a wound 

 from a poisoned arrow, and not as a punishment. 



Although I required only eight or ten men altogether, I had 

 much trouble in getting them. Bombay certainly assisted some- 

 what ; but Bilal was strutting about on a pair of high clog-like 

 sandals, doing nothing, and, when spoken to, even laughed at 

 me. So I had to take him down a peg by knocking him off his 

 clogs and throwing them at his head. 



Bombay asserted that the men wanted to break up the cara- 

 van and go no farther, and the trouble on this occasion was a 

 tentative attempt at forcing me to abandon going to Mohrya. 

 Had they succeeded, they would then have endeavored to pre- 

 vent my making any other excursions while waiting for Alvez, 

 and also to compel me to altogether give up the idea of travel- 

 ing to the West Coast. 



