208 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXVII. 
heat of the day very badly. About an hour's march 
beyond Kalowa we met a party of horsemen coming 
from Kiikawa ; and as their head man appeared to be 
an intelligent person, I approached him, and asked 
him the news of the place. He most probably took me 
for an Arab, and told me that all was well, but that 
the Christian who had been coming from a far distant 
country to pay his compliments to the sheikh had 
died, more than twenty days ago, in a place called 
Ngunituwa, before reaching Kiikawa. There could 
now be no more doubt of the sad event ; and with 
deep emotion I continued my march, praying to the 
Merciful to grant me better success than had fallen 
to the lot of my companion, and to strengthen me, 
that I might carry out the benevolent and humane 
purposes of our mission. 
This district also has a very scanty supply of water ; 
and it took us more than half an hour to collect, 
from four wells near another small village, a suffi- 
cient supply for my horse; but as to filling our water- 
skins, it was not to be thought of. The wells were 
ten fathoms deep. We halted half an hour before 
noon, not far from another well, at the foot of a 
sandy swell upon which the little village " Mallem 
Keremeri " is situated. Here, as well as in the village 
passed in the morning, we could not obtain beans, 
though the cultivation of them is in general carried 
on to a great extent ; but this district seemed to 
produce millet or Penniseturn typhdidewn almost 
exclusively — at least no sorghum was to be seen. 
