Chap. XLIV. NEW FEATURES. 
189 
and from thence to-day had reached this place ; but 
the whole journey, in an expeditious march, may 
easily be accomplished in two days. Difficult as it 
would be to me to impart to the reader the delight 
which I always felt in tracing my routes from one 
point to another, and joining two places with which 
I had become acquainted, by new itineraries, he may 
forgive me for sometimes troubling him with these 
geographical details. 
We did not spend our Sunday in a quiet Sunday, 
contemplative manner ; but nevertheless we December 28th. 
spent it worthily, employing it in a good day's march, 
which opened out to us new and important features of 
the character of the new region we had just entered. 
It was a pity we were not allowed by circumstances 
to proceed in our real character of peaceful travellers, 
anxious to befriend all the people with whom we 
came in contact, instead of being obliged to join this 
host of merciless and sanguinary slave-hunters, who, 
regardless of the beauty of the country and the 
cheerful happiness of the natives, were only intent 
upon enriching themselves with the spoil of the in- 
habitants. 
After a march of a little less than five miles, we 
emerged from the thick forest, and entered upon 
stubble-fields with numerous groups of huts and 
wide-spreading trees, whose branches were all used 
for storing up the ranks of nutritious grass of these 
swampy grounds, for a supply in the dry season. 
The country was pleasant in the extreme. Several 
