1866.] INFAMOUS CRUELTY OF SEPOYS. 27 



2bth April. — A serpent bit Jack, our dog, above the eye, 

 the upper eyelid swelled very much, but no other symptoms 

 appeared, and next day all swelling was gone; the serpent 

 was either harmless, or the quantity of poison injected very 

 small. The pace of the camels is distressingly slow, and 

 it suits the sepoys to make it still slower than natural 

 by sitting down to smoke and eat. The grass is high 

 and ground under it damp and steamy. 



2&h April.— On the 25th we reached Nam, and resolved 

 to wait the next day and buy food, as it is not so plentiful 

 in front ; the people are eager traders in meal, fowls, eggs, 

 and honey ; the women are very rude. Yesterday I caught 

 a sepoy, Pando, belabouring a camel with a big stick as 

 thick as any part of his arm, the path being narrow, it could 

 not get out of his way ; I shouted to him to desist ; he did 

 not know I was in sight, to-day the effect of the bad usage 

 is seen in the animal being quite unable to move its leg : 

 inflammation has set up in the hip-joint. I am afraid that 

 several bruises which have festered on the camels, and were 

 to me unaccountable, have been wilfully bestowed. This 

 same Pando and another left Zanzibar drunk : he then stole 

 a pair of socks from me, and has otherwise been perfectly 

 useless, even a pimple on his leg was an excuse for doing- 

 nothing for many days. We had to leave this camel at 

 Narri under charge of the headman. 



28th April. — The hills on the north now retire out of 

 our sight. A gap in the southern plateau gives passage to a 

 small river, which arises in a lakelet of some size, eight or 

 ten miles inland: the river and lakelet are both called 

 Nangadi ; the latter is so broad that men cannot be distin- 

 guished, even by the keen eyes of the natives on the other 

 side : it is very deep, and abounds in large fish ; the people 

 who live there are Mabiha. A few miles above this gap 

 the southern highland falls away, and there are lakelets on 



