254 THE LAKE KEGIONS OF CENTEAL AFKICA. 



came friends, and took up their loads. My companion 

 and I rode quietly forward : scarcely, however, had we 

 emerged from the little basin in which the camp had 

 been placed, than a terrible hubbub of shouts and yells 

 announced that the second act had commenced. After 

 a few minutes, Said bin Salim came forward in trem- 

 bling haste to announce that the Jemadar had again 

 struck a Pagazi, who, running into the Nullah, had 

 thrown stones with force enough to injure his assailant, 

 consequently that theBalochhad drawn their sabres and 

 had commenced a general massacre of porters. Well un- 

 derstanding this misrepresentation, we advanced about 

 a mile, and thence sent back two of the sons of Ramji 

 to declare that we would not be delayed, and that if 

 not at once followed, we would engage other porters at the 

 nearest village. This brought on a denouement: pre- 

 sently the combatants appeared, the Baloch in a high 

 state of grievance, the Africans declaring that they 

 had not come to fight but to carry. I persuaded 

 them both to defer settling the business till the evening, 

 when both parties well crammed with food listened 

 complacently to that gross personal abuse, which, in 

 these lands, represents a reprimand. 



Resuming our journey, we crossed two high and 

 steep hills, the latter of which suddenly disclosed to the 

 eye the rich and fertile basin of Maroro. Its principal 

 feature is a perennial mountain stream, which, descend- 

 ing the chasm which forms the northern pass, winds slug- 

 gishly through the plain of muddy black soil and patches 

 of thick rushy grass, and diffused through watercourses 

 of raised earth, covers the land with tobacco, holcus, 

 sweet- potato, plantains, and maize. The cereals stood 

 five feet high, and were already in ear : according to 

 the people, never less than two, and often three and 



