144 
THE KILIMA-NJAB 0 EXBELITIOK. 
to its embellishments I had, alas ! to leave Mosi for 
good, and my deserted palace doubtless remains be¬ 
hind (white ants and natives permitting) to testify to 
future explorers, by its (relatively) Cyclopean propor¬ 
tions and harmonious design, that an ambitious white 
man once sojourned in that spot. 
While my building of clay and wood may prove but 
fleeting evidences of my long residence in Mosi, the 
roads I made, and even the bridges over the shallow 
streams are likelier to subsist. One of my first actions 
on entering a savage country and residing there, though 
it may be only for a day or two, is to get men, axes, 
sickles, and spades, and clear a path from somewhere 
to somewhere else through the dense bush. It always 
seems to me that in so doing I am opening up, how¬ 
ever feebly, the land to civilization. Moreover, if you 
are going to collect in the forest and study nature 
there, it is much pleasanter to have a decent path 
along which to walk to your basis of operations. So 
my broad tracks stretched right away in many direc¬ 
tions from the settlement, and along them I could go 
backwards and forwards to my work. 
So even was the tenor of my ways during this firs 
month in Mosi, that I can find no striking events 
worthy to lay before you, other than the mild domestic 
incidents of this bucolic life. As one dav was the re- 
«/ 
petition of another, I may describe pretty accurately 
how a whole month was passed by retailing to you the 
petty incidents and occupations which made up the 
sum of my existence between awaking from my 
slumbers in the morning and retiring to my well-earned 
rest at night. 
One typical day of my first month’s residence in 
Ivitimbiriu shall be taken from my diary and laid 
