A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



in the immediate vicinity of his village. Unfortun- 

 ately for him, his chief arrived soon afterwards and 

 gave him away, but he remained quite unabashed. 

 He had a strong sense of humour, and stayed with 

 us for several days, being quite useful as a guide. 



The 14th we followed the Livilezi until we 

 reached the Fort Alston — Fort Manning Road, 

 where we encamped. The marshes were left be- 

 hind, and the river now ran through a valley in 

 which rocky gorges covered with forest alternated 

 with open stretches of meadow-land. Roan antelope 



were seen on the way, and A shot a waterbuck. 



Everywhere there were traces of elephant. We 

 stopped early in the day, as our men were short of 

 flour; and having heard that at some distant village 

 sufficient flour could be bought to last them until 

 Fort Jameson, several men were allowed to go and 

 fetch it ; they were all back soon after nightfall. We 

 attributed some recent cases of dysentery in the 

 caravan to an excess of meat. 



15th. — Continuing along the Livilezi till close to 

 the foothills, we halted in a large dambo for break- 

 fast. During the meal two natives with dogs turned 



up and assured A that they could show him 



eland. They took him a long tramp in the hot sun, 

 but finally were unable even to point out spoor. 

 In the meantime the camp had been pitched at the 

 edge of a wood; it was a delightful spot, the prettiest 

 we had had for some time, with a charming view 

 of the mountains, and from it we could see both 

 zebra and hartebeest grazing in the dambo. That 

 afternoon we sent off a messenger to the African 



95 



