1872.] BRIDGE BUILDING. 251 



28th November. — We came to the River Lofu in a mile. It 

 is sixty feet across and very deep. We made a bridge, and 

 cut the banks down, so that the donkey and cattle could pass 

 over. It took us two hours, during which time we hauled 

 them all across with a rope. We were here misled by our 

 guide, who took us across a marsh covered with tufts of grass, 

 but with deep water between that never dries ; there is a 

 path which goes round it. We came to another village with 

 a river which must be crossed — no stockade here, and the chief 

 allowed us to camp in his town. There are long low lines of 

 hills all about. A man came to the bridge to ask for toll- 

 fee : as it was composed of one stick only, and unfit for our 

 use because rotten, I agreed to pay provided he made it fit 

 for our large company ; but if I re-made and enlarged it, I 

 said he ought to give me a goat for the labour. He slunk 

 away, and we laid large trees across, where previously there 

 was but one rotten pole. 



29th November. — Crossed the Loozi in two branches, and 

 climbed up the gentle ascent of Malembe to the village of 

 Chiwe, whom I formerly called Chibwe, being misled by the 

 Yao tongue. Ilamba is the name of the rill at his place. 

 The Loozi's two branches were waist deep. The first was 

 crossed by a natural bridge of a fig-tree growing across. It 

 runs into the Lofu, which river rises in Isunga country at 

 a mountain called Kwitette. The Chambeze rises east of 

 this, and at the same place as Louzua. 



Chiwe presented a small goat with crooked legs and some 

 millet flour, but he grumbled at the size of the fathom cloth 

 I gave. I offered another fathom, and a bundle of needles, 

 but he grumbled at this too, and sent it back. On this 

 I returned his goat and marched. 



[The road lay through the same country among low hills, 

 for several miles, till they came on the 1st December to a 

 rivulet called Lovu Katanta, where curiously enough they 



