124 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. V. 



I explained some of my objects in coming through the 

 country, advising the people to refrain from selling each 

 •other, as it ends in war and depopulation. He was cunning, 

 and said, " Well, you must sleep here, and all my people 

 will come and hear those words of peace." I explained that 

 I had employed carriers, who expected to be paid though 

 I had gone but a small part of a day ; he replied, " But 

 they will go home and come again to-morrow, and it will 

 count but one day :" I was thus constrained to remain. 



9th October. — Both barometer and boiling-point showed 

 .an altitude of upwards of 4000 feet above the sea. This 

 is the hottest month, but the air is delightfully clear, and 

 delicious. The country is very fine, lying in long slopes, 

 Avith mountains rising all around, from 2000 to 3000 feet 

 above this upland. They are mostly jagged and rough 

 (not rounded like those near to Mataka's) : the long slopes 

 .are nearly denuded of trees, and the patches of cultivation 

 .are so large and often squarish in form, that but little 

 imagination is requisite to transform the whole into the 

 •cultivated fields of England ; but no hedgerows exist. The 

 trees are in clumps on the tops of the ridges, or at the 

 villages, or at the places of sepulture. Just now the young 

 leaves are out, but are not yet green. In some lights they 

 look brown, but with transmitted light, or when one is 

 near them, crimson prevails. A yellowish-green is met some- 

 times in the young leaves, and brown, pink, and orange-red. 

 The soil is rich, but the grass is only excessively rank in 

 spots; in general it is short. A kind of trenching of the 

 ground is resorted to ; they hoe deep, and draw it well to 

 themselves : this exposes the other earth to the hoe. The 

 soil is burned too : the grass and weeds are placed in flat 

 heaps, and soil placed over them : the burning is slow, and 

 most of the products of combustion are retained to fatten 

 the field ; in this way the people raise large crops. Men and 

 women and children engage in field labour, but at present 



