A Thousand Miles in a MachiUa 



ing quite a number of puku and iswalah en route. 

 One of the former, a buck, and the first we met 

 with since leaving the Bua, was shot. 



We thought that the whole affair was a plot of 

 John's to get a quiet day in camp, but on investigation 

 Roberti failed to implicate John in any way, and con- 

 fessed that he had only invented the story to make 

 fun of him, and had not intended that we should hear 

 of it. In the end, as the whole transaction was 

 rather quaint, Roberti got off with a caution, but he 

 was advised not to play the funny man again. 



In the morning, soon after A's departure, I 



had the camp shifted a few hundred yards, and the 

 tent pitched under the shade of a giant fig-tree — a 

 far pleasanter situation than the previous one on the 



river bank. In the early afternoon A started off 



again with the chief as guide and got a fine roan, 

 seeing other game as well. My diary has the entry, 

 **a very hot night." 



Next day we were to march to Ndombo, and as 

 game was reported on the left bank of the Nyamadzi 

 river, we decided to send the caravan by the road 

 and make a ddtour ourselves. The river had to be 

 crossed more than once, a difficult achievement, 

 owing to the dense vegetation on its banks, so 

 thick in places that we had to leave our machillas 

 and crawl through the bush as best we could, the 

 machillas being pushed after us. The spoor of 

 rhinoceros was seen, and we passed the evidently 

 only recently vacated home of one of them. We 

 expected to see his ugly face waiting for us round 

 every corner, so the heavy rifle was got ready^ 



152 



