people would no longer
give us guides. They were afraid of their enemies, whose dwellings we
now had on our east; and, proceeding without any one to lead us, or to
introduce us to the inhabitants, we were perplexed by all the paths
running zigzag across instead of along the valley. They had been made by
the villagers going from the hamlets on the slopes to their gardens in
the meadows below. To add to our difficulties, the rivulets and mountain-
torrents had worn gullies some thirty or forty feet deep, with steep
sides that could not be climbed except at certain points. The remaining
inhabitants on the flank of the range when they saw strangers winding
from side to side, and often attempting to cross these torrent beds at
impossible places, screamed out their shrill war-alarm, and made the
valley ring with their wild outcries. It was war, and war alone, and we
were too deep down in the valley to make our voices heard in explanation.
Fortunately, they had burned off the long grass to a great extent. It
only here and there hid them from us. Selecting an open spot, we spent a
night regarded by all around us as slave-hunters, but were undisturbed,
though the usual way of treating an enemy in this part of the country is
by night attack.

The nights at the altitude of the valley were cool, the lowest
temperature shown being 37 degrees; at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. it was 58
degrees, about the average temperature of the day; at mid-day 82 degrees,
and sunset 70 degrees. Our march was very much hindered by the
imperfectly burned corn and grass stalks having fallen across the paths.
To a reader in England this will seem a very small obstacle. But he must
fancy the grass stems as thick as his little finger, and the corn-stalks
like so many walkingsticks lying in one direction, and so supporting each
other that one has to lift his feet up as when wading through deep high
heather. The stems of grass showed the causes of certain explosions as
loud as pistols, which are heard when the annual fires come roaring over
the land. The heated air inside expanding bursts the stalk with a loud
report, and strews the fragments on the ground.

A very great deal of native corn had been cultivated here, and we saw
buffaloes feeding in the deserted gardens, and some women, who ran away
very much faster than the beasts did.

On the 29th, seeing some people standing under a tree by a village, we
sat down, and sent Masego, one of our party, to