58 MKTJLI TO THE CAPITAL OF UXYORO. 



not ten persons Had turned up ; and when, after half an hour's 

 bargaining and palaver, a few more Negroes appeared, no one 

 seemed to know the road, although Kabrega's capital could 

 not have been more than five or six hours distant. I was 

 therefore compelled to send two men to Kabrega to beg him 

 to send me a guide, knowing all the while that this ignorance 

 was a mere pretence. Fortunately I had been able to pro- 

 cure a sheep and a few fowls, as well as some sesame 

 (Sesamum orient ale) for my people in exchange for a few 

 beads, so that they at least did not starve. There were several 

 heavy storms of rain again that day. 



At last, on the 2 1st, we started. The horns had been blow- 

 ing for hours, and my people had urged me to march. As, 

 however, I had heard the beating of a big drum for about half an 

 hour, I concluded that Kabrega was sending one of his chiefs 

 to meet me ; and so it turned out, for soon after, Makango (big 

 chief) Bkamba appeared, accompanied by a drummer, a gun- 

 boy, and some five or six other people, to greet me and to 

 escort me at once to Kabrega. Everything was now arranged 

 like magic, and off we marched, our luggage in advance. We 

 climbed up through well-cultivated land, in which were many 

 huts ; then, turning round by a large banana grove, we descended 

 to a big papyrus swamp, the crossing of which, although it was 

 only about two hundred yards broad, occupied a whole half- 

 hour, because the water between each single thicket reached 

 up to our necks and the roots caught our feet like nooses. 

 Only one who has experienced such a passage can form an idea 

 of its unpleasantness, especially when stinging and prickly 

 vossia-grass abounds. 



When we at length found ourselves safely on the opposite 

 bank, the porters, who were most wonderfully willing, went 

 on before, and we passed through dense masses of grass with 

 many mimosas, which occasionally gave place to meadow- 

 land,, until we entered a sort of defile between two ranges 

 of mountains, and marched on, up and down hill. One of 

 these hills was decorated by a solitary beautiful dracaena. In a 

 banana grove, where fig-trees and phoenix palms were grow- 

 ing, we saw the fresh spoors of two large hyenas. The last 

 part of the road led along the mountain-side to the left, Khor 



