HUNGER.— PALISADES. 305 



poured down every day, and kept those who had clothing con- 

 stantly wet. I observed, in this piece of forest, a very strong 

 smell of sulphureted hydrogen. This I had observed repeatedly 

 in other parts before. I had attacks of fever of the intermittent 

 type again and again, in consequence of repeated drenchings in 

 these unhealthy spots. 



On the 11th and 12th we were detained by incessant rains, and 

 so heavy I never saw the like in the south. I had a little tapio- 

 ca and a small quantity of Libonta meal, which I still reserved 

 for worse times. The patience of my men under hunger was ad- 

 mirable ; the actual want of the present is never so painful as the 

 thought of getting nothing in the future. We thought the people 

 of some large hamlets very niggardly and very independent of 

 their chiefs, for they gave us and Manenko nothing, though they 

 had large fields of maize in an eatable state around them. When 

 she went and kindly begged some for me, they gave her five ears 

 only. They were subjects of her uncle ; and, had they been Ma- 

 kololo, would have been lavish in their gifts to the niece of their 

 chief. I suspected that they were dependents of some of Shinte's 

 principal men, and had no power to part with the maize of their 

 masters. 



Each house of these hamlets has a palisade of thick stakes 

 around it, and the door is made to resemble the rest of the 

 stockade ; the door is never seen open ; when the owner wishes 

 to enter, he removes a stake or two, squeezes his body in, then 

 plants them again in their places, so that an enemy coming in the 

 night would find it difficult to discover the entrance. These pal- 

 isades seem to indicate a sense of insecurity in regard to their fel- 

 low-men, for there are no wild beasts to disturb them ; the bows 

 and arrows have been nearly as efficacious in clearing the country 

 here as guns have in the country farther south. This was a dis- 

 appointment to us, for we expected a continuance of the abund- 

 ance of game in the north which we found when we first came up 

 to the confluence of the Leeba and Leeambye. 



A species of the silver-tree of the Cape (Leucodendron argen- 

 teum) is found in abundance in the parts through which we have 

 traveled since leaving Samoana's. As it grows at a height of 

 between two and three thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea, on the Cape Table Mountain, and again on the northern 



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