Chap. XXXIX. SUBMERGED IN A BOG. 
55 
this occasion a good specimen of the assistance we 
were likely to receive from our companions in cases 
of difficulty ; for they were looking silently on with- 
out affording me any aid. Mr. Overweg was some 
distance behind, and, when he came up, was enabled 
to supply me with dry clothing. 
The spot would have been quite interesting but 
for this accident, as there was here, favoured by the 
rich soil and this very morass, a beautiful plantation 
of red ngaberi, or sorghum, of that peculiar kind 
called mosoga, or rather, masakwa, in the highest 
state of exuberance, and just beginning to ripen ; it 
was the finest specimen I saw on my whole journey. 
Fortunately the sun was moderately warm, as I 
began to feel very chilly after my involuntary bath. 
We continued our march at first along another 
hollow containing fresh water, and then, ascending 
a little, came upon a sandy level well clothed with 
herbage and trees of the mimosa kind. Here we 
seemed to be entirely out of reach of the lake ; and 
great was our astonishment when a little after nine 
o'clock we came close upon another fine sheet of 
fresh, blue water. It was a great satisfaction to me, 
in the state I was in, that we encamped at so early 
an hour on its northern border, where some serrak 
afforded a tolerable shade. I was busy drying my 
clothes, arms, saddlecloths, and journals, when there 
appeared certain indications of an approaching storm ; 
and in order to avoid being wetted twice in the same 
day, I got my tent pitched. After a furious gale the 
E 4 
