length to the Lobo, travelling along its banks till we reached
the village called Lisunga, which was about five yards broad, and very
deep, in flood, with clear water, as indeed are all the rivulets now;
they can only be crossed by felling a tree on the bant and letting it
fall across. They do not abrade their banks--vegetation protects them.
I observed that the brown ibis, a noisy bird, took care to restrain
his loud, harsh voice when driven from the tree in which his nest was
placed, and when about a quarter of a mile off, then commenced his
loud "Ha-ha-ha!"

_18th January, 1867._--The headman of Lisunga, Chaokila, took our
present, and gave nothing in return. A deputy from Chitapangwa came
afterwards and demanded a larger present, as he was the greater man,
and said that if we gave him two fathoms of calico, he would order all
the people to bring plenty of food, not here only, but all the way to
the paramount chief of Lobemba, Chitapangwa. I proposed that he should
begin by ordering Chaokila to give us some in return for our present.
This led, as Chaokila told us, to the cloth being delivered to the
deputy, and we saw that all the starvelings south of the Chambeze were
poor dependants on the Babemba, or rather their slaves, who cultivate
little, and then only in the rounded patches above mentioned, so as to
prevent their conquerors from taking away more than a small share. The
subjects are Babisa--a miserable lying lot of serfs. This tribe is
engaged in the slave-trade, and the evil effects are seen in their
depopulated country and utter distrust of every one.

_19th January, 1867._--Raining most of the day. Worked out the
longitude of the mountain-station said to be Mpini, but it will be
better to name it Chitane's, as I could not get the name from our
maundering guide; he probably did not know it. Lat, 11 deg. 9' 2" S.;
long. 32 deg. 1' 30" E.

Altitude above sea (barometer) 5353 feet;
Altitude above sea (boiling-point) 5385 feet.
----
Diff. 32.[46]

Nothing but famine and famine prices, the people living on mushrooms
and leaves. Of mushrooms we observed that they choose five or six
kinds, and rejected ten sorts. One species becomes as large as the
crown of a man's hat; it is pure white, with a blush of brown in the
middle of the crown, and is very good roasted; it is named "Motenta;"
another, Mofeta; 3rd, Bosefwe; 4th, Naka