GOAT KILLED BY CHEETAHS. 247 
reaching this place, extremely heavy. My waggon 
stuck the night of my arrival, but Blockley brought 
his oxen and helped me out ; which, however, he 
failed to accomplish that night, though succeeding the 
morning following. He then brought my waggon 
up here on to the top of a little hill where his house 
is, close to which it is now drawn up. 
"This must be a comparatively healthy spot, even 
in the most unhealthy time, as it overlooks the flat wet 
country around it, and the water will run from it. 
There appeared to me to be much more watery land, 
and more pools of water, about Daka than here. It 
is where so much land lies under water that, about the 
end of the rainy season, the fever is so bad. People 
may get it almost any time, but February, March, 
and April seem to be the worst months. I think 
Baines is said to have stated that he would rather be 
on the Zambesi in January, the height of the rainy 
season, than in May, a lovely month, but when the 
moisture is perhaps not all dried up. When it is 
dried up, it is then all right. Another thing seems to 
be, that people moving about are better off than 
those who have to remain stationary in one place. 
*' One of my goats was reported to have been 
killed by a leopard on Christmas Eve. We all went 
with our guns, and I took my dogs. We found the 
unfortunate goat lying dead, a live companion stand- 
ing over it ; and, also standing over it, and facing 
the live goat, an animal I thought was a dog. They 
told me it was the leopard, but I would not fire, still 
thinking it a dog. At last, however, I saw what it 
