28 TKAVEL, ADVEXTUKE, AXD SPOET. 



and would exchange any of his cows that I might 

 take a fancy to for powder, which I said I had there. 

 The quantity of cattle in Msalala surpasses anything 

 I have seen in Africa. Large droves, tended by a 

 few men each, are to be seen in every direction over 

 the extensive plains, and every village is filled with 

 them at night. The cultivation also is as abundant 

 as the cattle are numerous, and the climate is delight- 

 ful. To walk till breakfast, 9 A.M., every morning, I 

 find a luxury, and thence till noon I ride with plea- 

 sure ; but the next three hours, though pleasant in a 

 hut, are too warm to be agreeable under hard ex- 

 ertion. The evenings and the mornings, again, are 

 particularly serene, and the night, after 10 P.M., so 

 cold as to render a blanket necessary. But then you 

 must remember that all the country about these lati- 

 tudes, on this meridian, 33 east, is at an altitude of 

 3500 to 4000 feet. My dinner to-day was improved 

 by the addition of tomatoes and the bird's-eye chili 

 luxuries to us, but which the negroes, so different 

 from Indians, never care about, and seldom grow. 

 The cotton-plant is as fine here as at Unyanyembe or 

 Ujiji, and anything would grow with only the trouble 

 of throwing down the seed. It is a great pity that 

 the country is not in better hands. From all I can 

 gather, there is no fixed revenue paid to these sultans ; 

 all their perquisites are occasional kuhongos received 

 from travellers ; a percentage on all foreign seizures, 

 whether by battle or plunder ; and a certain part of 



