214 ESCAPE FROM RHINOCEROS. Chap. X. 



the Chongwe, which comes through a gap in the hills on our 

 right, and is twenty yards wide. A small tribe of the Bazi- 

 zulu, from the south, under Dadanga, have recently settled 

 here and built a village. Some of their houses are square, 

 and they seem to be on friendly terms with the Bakoa, 

 who own the country. They, like the other natives, culti- 

 vate cotton, but of a different species from any we have yet 

 seen in Africa, the staple being very long, and the boll larger 

 than what is usually met with ; the seeds cohere as in the 

 Pernambuco kind. They brought the seed with them from 

 their own country, the distant mountains of which in the 

 south, still inhabited by their fellow-countrymen, who possess 

 much cattle and use shields, can be seen from this high 

 ground. These people profess to be children of the great 

 paramount Chief, Kwanyakarombe, who is said to be lord of all 

 the Bazizulu. The name of this tribe is known to geographers, 

 who derive their information from the Portuguese, as the Mo- 

 rusurus, and the hills mentioned above are said to have been 

 the country of Changainira, the warrior-chief of history, whom 

 no Portuguese ever dared to approach. The Bazizulu seem, by 

 report, to be brave mountaineers ; nearer the river, the Sidima 

 inhabit the plains ; just as on the north side, the Babimpe 

 live on the heights, about two days off, and the Makoa on or 

 near the river. The Chief of the Bazizulu we were now with 

 was hospitable and friendly. A herd of buffaloes came 

 trampling through the gardens and roused up our men ; a 

 feat that roaring lions seldom achieved. 



Our course next day passed over the upper terrace arid 

 through a dense thorn jungle. Travelling is always diffi- 

 cult where there is no path, but it is even more per- 

 plexing where the forest is cut up by many game-tracks. 

 Here we got separated from one another, and a rhino- 



