and seller shall
spend a good deal of time in trying to cheat each other before coming to
any conclusion over a bargain.

We found the Lesungwe a fine stream near its source, and about forty feet
wide and knee-deep, when joined by the Lekudzi, which comes down from the
Maravi country.

Guinea-fowl abounded, but no grain could be purchased, for the people had
cultivated only the holmes along the banks with maize and pumpkins. Time
enough had not elapsed since the slave-trader's invasion, and destruction
of their stores, for them to raise crops of grain on the adjacent lands.
To deal with them for a few heads of maize was the hungry bargaining with
the famished, so we hastened on southwards as fast as the excessive heat
would allow us. It was impossible to march in the middle of the day, the
heat was so intolerable; and we could not go on at night, because, if we
had chanced to meet any of the inhabitants, we should have been taken for
marauders.

We had now thunder every afternoon; but while occasional showers seemed
to fall at different parts, none fell on us. The air was deliciously
clear, and revealed all the landscape covered everywhere with forest, and
bounded by beautiful mountains. On the 31st October we reached the
Mukuru-Madse, after having travelled 660 geographical miles, or 760
English miles in a straight line. This was accomplished in fifty-five
travelling days, twelve miles per diem on an average. If the numerous
bendings and windings, and ups and downs of the paths could have been
measured too, the distance would have been found at least fifteen miles a
day.

The night we slept at the Mukuru-Madse it thundered heavily, but, as this
had been the case every afternoon, and no rain had followed, we erected
no shelter, but during this night a pouring rain came on. When very
tired a man feels determined to sleep in spite of everything, and the
sound of dropping water is said to be conducive to slumber, but that does
not refer to an African storm. If, when half asleep in spite of a heavy
shower on the back of the head, he unconsciously turns on his side, the
drops from the branches make such capital shots into his ear, that the
brain rings again.

We were off next morning, the 1st of November, as soon as the day dawned.
In walking about seven miles to the ship, our clothes were thoroughly
dried by the hot sun, and an attack of fever followed. We relate this
little incident to point out the almost c