1867.] SEVERE SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER. 170 



nearly all day ; and we bought all the niaere the chief 

 would sell. We were now forced to go on and made for 

 the next village to buy food. Want of food and rain are 

 •our chief difficulties now, more rain falls here on this 

 northern slope of the upland than elsewhere ; clouds come 

 up from the north and pour down their treasures in heavy 

 thunder-showers, which deluge the whole country south 

 ■of the edge of the plateau : the rain-clouds come from the 

 west chiefly. 



23rd January. — A march of five and three-quarter hours 

 brought us yesterday to a village, Chibanda's stockade, 

 w : here "no food" was the case, as usual. We crossed a 

 good-sized rivulet, the Mapampa (probably ten yards wide), 

 (lashing along to the east; all the rest of the way was in 

 dark forest. I sent off the boys to the village of Muasi 

 to buy food, if successful, to-morrow we march for the 

 Chambeze, on the other side of which all the reports 

 agree in the statement that there plenty of food is to 

 be had. We all feel weak and easily tired, and an incessant 

 himger teases us, so it is no wonder if so large a space of 

 this paper is occupied by stomach affairs. It has not been 

 merely want of nice dishes, but real biting hunger and 

 faintness. 



2-ith January. — Four hours through unbroken, dark 

 forest brought us to the Movushi, which here is a sluggish 

 stream, winding through and filling a marshy valley a mile 

 wide. It comes from south-east, and falls into the Cham- 

 beze, about 2' north of our encampment. The village of 

 Moaba is on the east side of the marshy valley of the 

 Movuhi, and very difficult to be approached, as the water 

 is chin-deep in several spots. I decided to make sheds on 

 the west side, and send over for food, which, thanks to the 

 Providence which watches over us, we found at last in a 

 good supply of niaere and some ground-nuts ; but through 

 all this upland region the trees yielding bark-cloth, or 



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