386 BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY. Chap. XXIX. 



plied either with meat by my gun and their own spears, or with 

 other food from the generosity of the inhabitants. Pangola 

 promised to ferry us across the Zambesi, but failed to fulfil 

 his promise, probably from a fear of offending his neighbour 

 Mpende b}' aiding our escape. Although we were in doubt 

 as to our reception by Mpende, I could not help admiring the 

 beautiful country as we passed along. There is, indeed, only 

 a small part under cultivation in this fertile valley, but my 

 mind naturally turned to the comparison of it with Kolobeng, 

 where we waited anxiously during months for rain, and then 

 only got a mere thunder-shower. I shall never forget the 

 dry, hot east winds of that region; the yellowish, sultry, 

 cloudless sky; the grass and all the plants drooping from 

 drought, the cattle lean, the people dispirited, and our own 

 hearts sick from hope deferred. There we often heard in the 

 dead of the night the shrill whistle of the rain-doctor calling 

 for rain that would not come, while here wo listened to the 

 rolling thunder by night and beheld the swelling valleys 

 adorned with plenty by day. Eain falls almost daily, and 

 everything is beautifully fresh and green. I felt somewhat 

 as people do on coming ashore after a long voyage — inclined 

 to look upon the landscape in the most favourable light. The 

 hills are covered with forests, and often a long line of fleecy 

 cloud floats about midway up their sides. Finding no one 

 willing to aid us in crossing the river, we proceeded to the 

 village of the chief Mpende. A fine conical, or rather double 

 conical hill now appeared to the N.E. ; and on the same side, 

 but more to the E., another, which, from its similarity in shape 

 to an axe, is called Motemwa. Beyond it, eastward, lies the 

 country of Kaimbwa, a chief who has been engaged in actual, 

 and, according to the version of things here, successful conflict 

 with the Bazunga. When we came to Mpende's village he 

 immediately sent to inquire who we were, and then, without 

 sending us any message, ordered the guides who had come 

 with us from the last village to go back for their masters. We 

 had travelled very slowly up to this point, the tsetse-stricken 

 oxen being now unable to go two miles an hour. We were 

 also delayed by being obliged to stop at every village ; for if 

 we had passed without taking any notice of them, they would 

 have considered it rude, and we should have appeared moie 



