THE ZAMBESI REGION. 
313 
viously, and Mokena, “ tlie mother of the country,” was 
courteous enough to send me one of the hind-quarters. 
I made my own boatmen keep up with the others all the 
morning, and we made our way along with good speed. 
The boats were all well-manned ; and as they darted 
about, sometimes in the rear and sometimes well to the 
front, threading their way between the islands on the 
dark blue water, and past the luxuriant mimosas on the 
banks, they formed a picture that I should willingly 
have done my best to transfer to paper if I had not felt 
that every available moment ought to be employed in 
making the best survey I could of the cartographical 
features of the stream. 
When it was necessary to give the energetic boatmen 
a rest we lay to for something under an hour against a 
sandbank opposite a Marutse settlement on the right- 
hand shore. They all enjoyed their dacha-pipes, while 
the queens partook of some light refreshment; one of 
them, Mamangala, thoughtfully sending me some broiled 
fish for my luncheon. The river-scenery, and the 
examples of animal life, corresponded very much with 
what I had noticed the day before. 
Towards evening we arrived at a place where some 
recent travellers had left about twenty huts. Here we 
resolved to land; and, indeed, it was high time that we 
did so, as a storm was gathering, and it began to rain 
before I could get my baggage on shore. The fourth 
boat for which I had asked was here awaiting me. The 
storm continued till near midnight; and as the huts 
were not waterproof, I was induced to use my wraps to 
protect my packages. While sitting dozing upon one 
of my boxes I slipped off, and woke to find myself 
lying in a great pool of water that had dripped through 
the thatch. Of such a night’s rest it was hardly to be 
expected that I should escape the consequences. 
I yielded next morning to the solicitations of the 
boatmen, and started, much against my inclination, on 
a hunting-excursion across the plain stretching far away 
from the Sesheke woods towards the west. Overgrown 
with grass four or five feet high, the plain was full of 
