34 FRIENDLINESS OF BONGA. Chap. I. 



of sweet-scented pinkish flowers perfume the air with a 

 rich fragrance ; its seeds produce a fine drying oil, and 

 the bark of the smaller branches yields a fibre finer and 

 stronger than flax; with which the natives make then* nets 

 for fishing. Bonga, the brother of the rebel Mariano, and 

 now at the head of the revolted natives, with some of 

 his principal men came to see us, and were perfectly 

 friendly, though told of our having carried the sick Governor 

 across to Shupanga, and of our having cured him of fever. 

 On our acquainting Bonga with the object of the expe- 

 dition, he remarked that we should suffer no hindrance 

 from his people in our good work. He sent us a pre- 

 sent of rice, two sheep, and a quantity of fire-wood. He 

 never tried to make any use of us in the strife ; the other 

 side showed less confidence, by carefully cross-questioning 

 our pilot whether we had sold any powder to the enemy. 

 We managed, however, to keep on good terms with both 

 rebels and Portuguese. 



Being unable to take the steamer up the shoal channel 

 along which Senna stands, we anchored at Nyaruka, a small 

 hamlet of blacks, six miles below, and walked up to 

 Senna next morning. The narrow winding footpath, along 

 which we had to march in Indian file, lay through gardens 

 and patches of wood, the loftiest trees being thorny acacias. 

 The sky was cloudy, the air cool and pleasant, and the 

 little birds, in the gladness of their hearts, poured forth 

 sweet strange songs, which, though equal to those of the 

 singing birds at home on a spring morning, yet seemed, 

 somehow, as if in a foreign tongue. We met many natives 

 on the road. Most of the men were armed with spears, bows 

 and arrows, or old Tower muskets ; the women had short- 

 handled iron hoes, and were going to work in the gardens ; 



