470 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
rience of the evening before, but I began to see the 
wisdom of the counsel given me by Stanley, namely, 
never in Africa, if it could possibly be avoided, to pass 
the night under native roofs. Several girls made their 
appearance at my camp, offering for sale Indian corn, 
both whole and in flour, and some magnificent potatoes, 
in no way inferior to those of Europe. Rain still con¬ 
tinued falling—less heavily, but most persistently-—and 
I really began to feel very ill. In the vicinity of my 
camp there was a little brook, whose waters helped to 
swell a rivulet, an affluent of the Cubango, into which 
it flowed somewhat farther to the westward. During 
the night the rain kept falling, and increased in violence 
between four and five in the morning, at which latter 
hour it held up. There is great abundance of excellent 
tobacco in this country, where a good deal was sold me 
at a very cheap rate. Few of the blacks, however, 
in those parts seem to smoke, but all use tobacco in the 
shape of snuff. This they prepare in a very primitive 
way, by roasting the leaf before a slow fire and then 
pounding it in the very tube or box, out of which they 
take it, by means of a little wooden pestle fastened to 
the box by a fine strap. 
I started at 7.40 a.m. in a N.E. direction, traversing 
a highly-cultivated and thickly-peopled region. At 8.30 
we passed close by the large hamlet of Vaneno, and at 
10 made a short halt close to the village of Moenacu- 
chimba. We resumed our march half an hour after¬ 
wards, still pursuing a N.E. course ; at 11 were 
abreast of the hamlet of Chacapombo, a very populous 
place, and at 11.30 had another rest, near Quiaia, the 
most important of all these inhabited places. The 
chief of this latter village turned out to salute me and 
made me a present of a large prig. I returned him 
its value in striped cotton stuff, at which he was very 
pleased, and subsequently sent a lot of pumpkins for the 
use of my people. We pursued our journey in the same 
direction, and two hours later pitched our tents in a 
wood near the hamlet of the Gongo. The latter part of 
this day’s march was very tedious owing to the heavy 
