180 



THE LAKE EEGIONS OF CENTKAL AFKICA. 



Two other Wanyamwezi porters were laid up with 

 small-pox. One ass died of fatigue, whilst a second 

 torn by a hyaena, and a third too weak to walk, were left, 

 together with the animal that had been stung by bees, in 

 charge of Mpambe, headman of the Wangindo. Being 

 now reduced to the number of nineteen beasts, I sub- 

 mitted to Said bin Salim the advisability of leaving 

 behind wire and ammunition, either cached in the jun- 

 gle, as is the custom of these lands, or entrusted to the 

 headman. The Arab approved; Kidogo, however, dis- 

 sented. I took the opinion of the latter, he was positive 

 that the effects once abandoned would never be recov- 

 ered, and that the headman, who appeared a kind of 

 cunning idiot, was not to be trusted. Some months 

 afterwards I commissioned an Arab merchant, who was 

 marching towards the coast,, to recover the asses left in 

 the charge of Mpambe ; the latter refused to give them 

 up, thus proving the soundness of Kidogo's judgment. 



Having collected with difficulty — the land was sun- 

 cracked, and the harvest-store had been concealed by 

 the people — some supplies, but scarcely sufficient for 

 the long desert tract, we began, on the 21st of August, 

 to cross the longitudinal plain that gently shelving west- 

 ward separates the Rufuta from the second, or Mu- 

 kondokwa Range. The plain was enclosed on all sides 

 by low lines of distant hill, and cut by deep nullahs, 

 which gave more than the usual amount of trouble. 

 The tall Palmyra (Borassus Flabelliformis), whose ma- 

 jestic bulging column renders it so difficult to climb, 

 was a novel feature in the scenery. This tree, the 

 Mvumo of East Africa, and the Deleb-palm of the 

 Upper Nile, is scattered through the interior, extending 

 to the far south. On this line it is more common in 

 Western Unyamwezi, where, and where only, an intoxi- 



