overed with deep
wrinkles; flat nose, somewhat of the Assyrian shape; a big mouth and
lean body. He complained of the Machinga (a Waiyau tribe north of him
and the Rovuma) stealing his people. Lat. of village, 11 deg. 22' 49" S.
The river being about 2' north, still shows that it makes a trend to
the north after we pass Ngomano. Makochera has been an elephant
hunter. Few acknowledge as a reason for slaving that sowing and
spinning cotton for clothing is painful. I waited some days for the
Nassick boys, who are behind, though we could not buy any food except
at enormous prices and long distances off.

_7th June, 1866._--The havildar and two sepoys came up with Abraham,
but Richard, a Nassick boy, is still behind from weakness. I sent
three off to help him with the only cordials we could muster. The
sepoys sometimes profess inability to come on, but it is unwillingness
to encounter hardship: I must move on whether they come or not, for we
cannot obtain food here. I sent the sepoys some cloth, and on the 8th
proposed to start, but every particle of food had been devoured the
night before, so we despatched two parties to scour the country round,
and give any price rather than want.

I could not prevail on Makochera to give me a specimen of poetry; he
was afraid, neither he nor his forefathers had ever seen an
Englishman. He thought that God was not good because He killed so many
people. Dr. Roscher must have travelled as an Arab if he came this
way, for he was not known.[10]

_9th June, 1866._--We now left and marched through the same sort of
forest, gradually ascending in altitude as we went west, then we came
to huge masses of granite, or syenite, with flakes peeling off. They
are covered with a plant with grassy-looking leaves and rough stalk
which strips into portions similar to what are put round candles as
ornaments. It makes these hills look light grey, with patches of
black rock at the more perpendicular parts; the same at about ten
miles off look dark blue. The ground is often hard and stony, but all
covered over with grass and plants: looking down at it, the grass is
in tufts, and like that on the Kalahari desert. Trees show uplands.
One tree of which bark cloth is made, pterocarpus, is abundant.
Timber-trees appear here and there, but for the most part the growth
is stunted, and few are higher than thirty feet. We spent the night by
a hill of the usual rounded form, called Njengo. The Rovuma comes
close by, b