18 UNINTERESTING SCENERY. CHAP. I. 



Luckily their hopes were not disappointed ; the rebels 

 waited until a supply came, and were then repulsed after 

 three-and-a-half hours' hard fighting. Two months after- 

 wards Mariano's stockade was burned, the garrison having 

 fled in a panic; and as Bonga declared that he did not 

 wish to fight with this Governor, with whom he had no 

 quarrel, the war soon came to an end. His Excellency 

 meanwhile, being a disciple of Easpail, had taken nothing 

 for the fever but a little camphor, and after he was taken 

 to Shupanga became comatose. More potent remedies 

 were administered to him, to his intense disgust, and he 

 soon recovered. The Colonel in attendance, whom he 

 never afterwards forgave, encouraged the treatment. 

 " Give what is right ; never mind him ; he is very (muito) 

 impertinent : " and all night long, with every draught 

 of water the Colonel gave a quantity of quinine : the 

 consequence was, next morning the patient was ein- 

 chonized and better. 



For sixty or seventy miles before reaching Mazaro, the 

 scenery is tame and uninteresting. On either hand is a 

 dreary uninhabited expanse, of the same level grassy 

 plains, with merely a few trees to relieve the painful 

 monotony. The round green top of the stately palm-tree 

 looks at a distance, when its grey trunk cannot be seen, 

 as though hung in mid-air. Many flocks of busy sand- 

 martins, which here, and as far south as the Orange Eiver, 

 do not migrate, have perforated the banks two or three 

 feet horizontally, in order to place their nests at the ends, 

 and are now chasing on restless wing the myriads of 

 tropical insects. The broad river has many low islands, 

 on which are seen various kinds of waterfowl, such as 

 geese, spoonbills, herons, and flamingoes. Repulsive cro- 

 codiles, as with open jaws they sleep and bask in the sun 

 on the low banks, soon catch the sound of the revolving 

 paddles and glide quietly into the stream. The hippopota- 



