240 DESERTED BY GUIDES. Chap. XIX 



the ends, and having sticks placed in it to acts as ribs. The 

 word Chikapa means bark or skin ; and as this is the only- 

 river in which we saw this kind of canoe used, it probably 

 derives its name from the use made of them. We now felt 

 the loss of our pontoon, for the people to whom the canoe 

 belonged made ns pay thrice over for our passage, viz. when 

 we began to cross, when half of us were over, and when all 

 were over but my principal man Pitsane and myself. Loyanke 

 took off" his cloth and paid my passage with it. 



Xext morning our guides went only about a mile, and then 

 told us they should return home. This was just what I 

 expected when paying them beforehand, in accordance with 

 the entreaties of the Makololo. Very, energetic remonstrances 

 were addressed to them, but they slipped off one by one in 

 the thick forest through which we were passing, and I was 

 glad to hear my companions coming to the conclusion, that, 

 as we were now in parts visited by traders, we did not 

 require them. The country was somewhat more undulating 

 than it had been, and several fine streams flowed in deep 

 woody dells. The trees were tall and straight, and the forests 

 gloumy and damp, the ground being quite covered with 

 mosses, and the trees with light-coloured lichens. The soil 

 was extremely fertile, being generally a black loam covered 

 with a thick crop of tall grasses. AVe passed several villages, 

 the head-man of one of which scolded us well for passing, 

 when he intended to give us food. Where slave-traders have 

 been in the habit of coming, they present food, and then 

 demand three or four times its value in return. We were 

 therefore glad to get past villages without intercourse with 

 the inhabitants. We were now travelling W.N.W., and all 

 the rivulets we here crossed had a northerly course, and were 

 reported to fall into the Kasai or Loke ; most of them bad the 

 peculiar boggy banks of the country. 



We spent Sunday (the 26th) on the banks of the Quilo, or 

 Kweelo, a stream about ten yards wide, running in a deep 

 glen, the rocky sides of which consist of hardened calcareous 

 tufa lying on clay shale and sandstone below, with a capping 

 of ferruginous conglomerate. The scenery would have been 

 very pleasing if the fever would have allowed me to enjoy it. 



The inhabitants of this district live in a state of glorious 



