In Afric’s Forest and Jungle 
rumbling of distant thunder. Yet I could see no 
cloud. The mountains had now taken on a very 
sombre hue and seemed to warn us of coming 
danger. Suddenly a great black cloud, made 
more appalling by the constant play of vivid 
lightning, issued from between them and came 
rushing and roaring straight at us. The violence 
of the shock so completely scattered my party 
that we did not get together again until next 
morning and one of the female converts was not 
found until the afternoon of the next day. In 
less time almost than it takes to tell it, the 
carriers, converts and children were thrown 
down by the force of the wind and lay wallow¬ 
ing and choking in water nearly knee deep. The 
carriers of my wife’s hammock, being stalwart 
warriors, managed to keep their feet to the last. 
My wife lay, half-strangled in a pool of water, 
but 1 managed to keep at her side until the 
tempest had swept past. The rain was blown 
almost horizontally and in sheets instead of drops. 
It struck us like the current of a rushing river. 
It was now quite dark and we had much 
difficulty in getting up the rocky defile into the 
camp. At last we entered amidst the deafening 
roar of guns as an expression of joy for the safe 
arrival of our caravan. 
204 
