286 THE LAKE REGIONS OF OENTEAL AFRICA. 



load — four boxes of ammunition — out of the question. 

 An article once abandoned in these deserts is rarely 

 if ever recovered ; the caravan-porters will not halt, 

 and a small party dares not return to recover it. 



The 22nd October saw us at Jiwe la Mkoa, the half- 

 way-house of Mgunda Mk'hali. The track, crossing the 

 rough Mabunguru Fiumara, passed over rolling ground 

 through a thorny jungle that gradually thinned out into 

 a forest ; about 8 a.m. a halt was called at a water in 

 the wilderness. My companion being no longer able to 

 advance on foot, an ass was unloaded, and its burden 

 of ammunition was divided, for facility of porterage, 

 amongst the sons of Kamji. After noon we resumed 

 our march, and the Kirangozi, derided by the rival 

 guide of the Coast- Arabs' caravan, and urged forward 

 by Kidogo, who was burning to see his wife and children 

 in Unyamwezi, determined to " put himself at the head 

 of himself." The jungle seemed interminable. The 

 shadows of the hills lengthened out upon the plains, the 

 sun sank in the glory of purple, crimson, and gold, and 

 the crescent-moon rained a flood of silvery light upon 

 the topmost twig- work of the trees ; we passed a dwarf 

 clearing, where lodging and perhaps provisions were to 

 be obtained, and we sped by water near the road where 

 the frogs were chanting their vesper- hymn; still far, — far 

 ahead we heard the horns and the faint march-cries of 

 the porters. At length, towards the end of the march, 

 we wound round a fantastic mass of cactus-clad 

 boulders, and crossing a low ridge we found at its base 

 a single Tembe or square village of emigrant Wakimbu, 

 who refused to admit us. The little basin beyond it 

 displayed, by " black jacks " and felled tree-trunks, 

 evidences of modern industry, and it extended to the 



