156 PREPARE FOR A JOURNEY. Chap. VII. 



this time covered the beds over with grass. The onions, with 

 other seeds of plants cultivated by the Portuguese, are usually 

 planted in the beginning of April, in order to have the 

 advantage of the cold season ; the wheat a little later, for 

 the same reason. If sown at the beginning of the rainy 

 season in November, it runs, as before remarked, entirely to 

 straw ; but, as the rains are nearly over in May, advantage is 

 iaken of low-lying patches, which have been flooded by the 

 river. A hole is made in the mud with a hoe, a few seeds 

 dropped in, and the earth shoved back with the foot. If not 

 favoured with certain misty showers, which, lower down the 

 river, are simply fogs, water is borne from the river to the roots 

 of the wheat in earthen pots ; and, in about four months, the 

 crop is ready for the sickle. The wheat of Tette is exported, 

 as the best grown in the country ; but a hollow spot at Maruru, 

 close by Mazaro, yielded very good crops, though just at the 

 level of the sea, as a few inches rise of tide shows. 



A number of days were spent in busy preparation for our 

 journey ; the cloth, beads, and brass wire, for the trip, were 

 sewn up in old canvass, and each package had the bearer's 

 name printed on it. The Makololo, who had worked for the 

 Expedition, were paid for their services, and every one who 

 had come down with the Doctor from the interior received 

 a present of cloth and ornaments, in order to protect 

 them from the greater cold of their own country, and 

 to show that they had not come in vain. Though called 

 Makololo by courtesy, as they were proud of the name, Kan- 

 yata, the principal headman, was the only real Makololo 

 of the party ; and he, in virtue of his birth, had succeeded 

 to the chief place on the death of Sekwebu. The others be- 

 longed to the conquered tribes of the Batoka, Bashubia, Ba- 

 Selea, and Barotse. Some of these men had only added to 



