FERRYMENS' DODGES. 



165 



demanded and received a cloth before they would rescue 

 them. In these and kindred manoeuvres nearly seven 

 hours were expended ; no accidents, however, occurred, 

 and at 4 p.m. we saw ourselves, with hearts relieved 

 of some load, once more at Ugogo, on the left bank of 

 the river. I found my companion, who had preceded 

 me, in treaty for the purchase of a little pig ; fortunately 

 the beads would not persuade the porters to part with 

 it, consequently my pots escaped pollution. 



An eventless march of twelve days led from the Mala- 

 garazi Ferry to Unyanyembe. Avoiding the detour to 

 Msene we followed this time the more direct southern 

 route. I had expected again to find the treacle-like 

 surface over which we had before crept, and perhaps even 

 in a worse state; but the inundations compelled the 

 porters to skirt the little hills bounding the swamps. 

 Provisions — rice, holcus and panicum, manioc, cu- 

 cumbers and sweet potatoes, pulse, ground-nuts, and 

 tobacco — became plentiful as we progressed ; the 

 arrowroot and the bhang plant flourished wild, and 

 plantains and palmyras were scattered over the land. 

 On the 8th June, emerging from inhospitable Uvinza 

 into neutral ground, we were pronounced to be out of 

 danger, and on the next day, when in the meridian of 

 Usagozi, we were admitted for the first time to the 

 comfort of a village. Three days afterwards we se- 

 parated from Said bin Majid. Having a valuable store 

 of tusks, he had but half loaded his porters ; he also 

 half fed them : the consequence was that they marched 

 like mad men, and ours followed like a flock of sheep. 

 He would not incur the danger and expense of visiting 

 a settlement, and he pitched in the bush, where pro- 

 visions were the least obtainable. When I told him 

 that we must part company, he deprecated the measure 



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