UNCULTIVATED VALLEYS. 365 



When I stood up, it was most gratifying to see them all strug- 

 gling toward me. Some had leaped off the bridge, and al- 

 lowed their cloaks to float down the stream. Part of my goods, 

 abandoned in the hurry, were brought up from the bottom after 

 [ was safe. Great was the pleasure expressed when they found 

 that I could swim, like themselves, without the aid of a tail, and 

 I did and do feel grateful to these poor heathens for the prompti- 

 tude with which they dashed in to save, as they thought, my life. 

 I found my clothes cumbersome in the water ; they could swim 

 quicker from being naked. They swim like dogs, not frog-fash- 

 ion, as we do. 



In the evening we crossed the small rivulet Lozeze, and came 

 to some villages of the Kasabi, from whom we got some manioc 

 in exchange for beads. They tried to frighten us by telling of 

 the deep rivers we should have to cross in our way. I was dry- 

 ing my clothes by turning myself round and round before the fire. 

 My men laughed at the idea of being frightened by rivers. " Wc 

 can all swim : who carried the white man across the river but him- 

 self?" I felt proud of their praise. 



Saturday, 4th March. Came to the outskirts of the territory 

 of the Chiboque. We crossed the Konde and Kaluze rivulets. 

 The former is a deep, small stream with a bridge, the latter in- 

 significant ; the valleys in which these rivulets run are beautiful- 

 ly fertile. My companions are continually lamenting over the 

 uncultivated vales in such words as these : " What a fine coun- 

 try for cattle ! My heart is sore to see such fruitful valleys for 

 corn lying waste." At the time these words were put down I 

 had come to the belief that the reason why the inhabitants of this 

 fine country possess no herds of cattle was owing to the despotic 

 sway of their chiefs, and that the common people would not be 

 allowed to keep any domestic animals, even supposing they 

 could acquire them ; but on musing on the subject since, I have 

 been led to the conjecture that the rich, fertile country of Londa 

 must formerly have been infested by the tsetse, but that, as the 

 people killed off the game on which, in the absence of man, the 

 tsetse must subsist, the insect was starved out of the country. 

 It is now found only where wild animals abound, and the Ba- 

 londa, by the possession of guns, having cleared most of the 

 country of all the large game, we may have happened to come 



