WE ARRIVE AT A PLACE OF SAFETY. 



81 



and the stream ran with considerable force. I bade fare- 

 well to that gun ; — by the bye it was the second accident 

 of the kind that had occurred to it ; — the country people 

 cannot dive, and no one ventures to affront the genius 

 loci, the mamba or crocodile. I found consolation in 

 the thought that the Expedition had passed without 

 accident through the most dangerous part of the 

 journey. In 18 days, from the 27th of June, to the 

 14th of July, I had accomplished, despite sickness 

 and all manner of difficulties, a march of 118 indirect 

 statute miles, and had entered K'hutu, the safe ren- 

 dezvous of foreign merchants. 



Eesuming our march on the 15th July, we entered 

 the " Doab," * on the western bank of the Mgeta, 

 where a thick and tangled jungle, with luxuriant and 

 putrescent vegetation, is backed by low, grassy grounds, 

 frequently inundated. Presently, however, the dense 

 thicket opened out into a fine park country, peculiarly 

 rich in game, where the calabash and the giant trees of 

 the seaboard gave way to mimosas, gums, and stunted 

 thorns. Large gnus, whom the porters regard with a 

 wholesome awe, declaring that they are capable of 

 charging a caravan, pranced about, pawing the 

 ground, and shaking their formidable manes ; harte- 

 beest and other antelopes clustered together on the 

 plain, or travelled in herds to slake their thirst at the 

 river. The homely cry of the partridge resounded from 

 the brake, and the guinea-fowls looked like large blue- 

 bells upon the trees. Small land-crabs took refuge in 

 the pits and holes, which made the path a cause of 



* This useful word, which means the land embraced by the bifurcation of 

 two streams, has no English equivalent. "Doab," "Dhun" (Dhoon), 

 " Nullah," and " Ghaut," might be naturalised with advantage in our mother 

 tongue. 



VOL. I. Q 



