Chap. XVI. HUNGER— PALISADES. 283 



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 sulphuretted 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 drencliings 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. 1 had a little 

 tapioca and a small quantity of Libonta meal, which I still 

 reserved for worse times. The patience of my men under hunger 

 was admirable ; 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 near us 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 Makololo, would have been lavish in 

 their gifts to the niece of their chief. I suspected that they 

 were dependants 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 

 palisades seem to indicate a sense of insecurity in regard to their 

 fellow-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 further south. This 

 was a disappointment to us, for we expected a continuance of 

 the abundance 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 

 travelled 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 



