BEZZANI. 
89 
out of their huts, and looked at the vessel, at first, with 
amazement and doubt ; but soon took courage, launched 
several canoes, and came alongside with goats. Guinea- 
fowls, calabashes, &c. 
At eleven a.m. got twice aground near the right 
bank, but were off almost immediately. 
The left bank was nearly destitute of huts, with 
the exception of a miserable-looking village called 
Bezzani, where the squalid wretchedness of the inha- 
bitants (Nufis) corresponded with the appearance of 
the place. Their only habiliment was a small cloth 
round the middle, showing altogether a degree of 
poverty not observed among any other people we have 
fallen in with since leaving the Oonfiuence. 
At half-past three grounded near the left bank ; 
laid a stream-anchor and hawser out, on the quarter, 
and hauled off in about twenty minutes. 
Later in the afternoon we were off Mount Elphinstone 
Fleming, a table mountain with sloping sides, which, 
as well as the hills and undulating lower grounds near 
it, were wooded and beautifully green ; and dotted here 
and there with huts, peeping through the clumps of 
palm-trees. The day was fine, and the atmosphere 
unusually clear. The character of the scenery had 
now, in a great measure, changed. We had no longer 
a dense luxuriant vegetation growing to the Avater’s 
edge and overhanging the river ; the banks, except in 
the creeks, were clearly defined, and elevated from 
three to six or eight feet above the river. We had 
