360 IMPROVED HEALTH : THE REASON. 



travelling. In Londa we braved the rain, and, as I despised 

 being carried in our frequent passage through running 

 water, I was pretty constantly drenched; but now, when 

 we saw a storm coming, we invariably halted. The men 

 soon pulled grass sufficient to make a little shelter for 

 themselves by placing it on a bush, and, having got my 

 camp-stool and umbrella, with a little grass under my feet, 

 I kept mj^eelf perfectly dry. We also lighted large fires, 

 and the men were not chilled by streams of water running 

 down their persons and abstracting the heat, as they would 

 have been had they been exposed to the rain. When it 

 was over they warmed themselves by the fires, and we 

 travelled on comfortably. The effect of this care was that 

 we had much less sickness than with a smaller party in 

 journeying to Loanda. Another improvement made from 

 my experience was avoiding an entire change of diet. In 

 going to Loanda I took little or no Eui'opean food, in order 

 not to burden my men and make them lose spirit, but 

 trusted entirely to what might be got by the gun and the 

 liberality of the Balonda; but on this journey I took some 

 flour which had been left in the wagon, with some got on 

 the island, and baked my own bread all the way in an ex- 

 temporaneous oven made by an inverted pot. With these 

 precautions, aided, no doubt, by the greater healthiness 

 of the district over which we passed, I enjoyed perfect 

 health. 



When we left the Chipongo on the 80th, we passed among 

 the range of hills on our left, which are composed of mica 

 and clay slate. At the bottom we found a forest of large 

 silicified trees, all lying as if the elevation of the range had 

 made them fall away from it and toward the river. The 

 numbers of large game were quite astonishing. I never 

 saw elephants so tame as those near the Chiponga : they 

 stood close to our path without being the least afraid. 

 This is different from their conduct where they have been 

 accustomed to guns, for there they take alarm at the dis- 

 tance of a mile, and begin to run if a shot is fired even at 



