man feet,
which, being hardened by the sun, make walking on their uneven surface
very difficult. Mosquitoes again; we had lost them during our long
stay on the higher lands behind us.

_23rd September, 1867._--A fire had broken out the night after we left
Hara, and the wind being strong, it got the upper hand, and swept away
at once the whole of the temporary village of dry straw huts: Hamees
lost all his beads, guns, powder, and cloth, except one bale. The news
came this morning, and prayers were at once offered for him with
incense; some goods will also be sent, as a little incense was. The
prayer-book was held in the smoke of the incense while the responses
were made. These Arabs seem to be very religious in their way: the
prayers were chiefly to Harasji, some relative of Mohamad.

_24th September, 1867._--Roused at 3 A.M. to be told that the next
stage had no water, and we should be oppressed with the midday heat if
we went now. We were to go at 2 P.M. Hamidi's wife being ill yesterday
put a stop to our march on that afternoon. After the first hour we
descended from the ridge to which we had ascended, we had then a wall
of tree-covered rocks on our left of more than a thousand feet in
altitude; after flanking it for a while we went up, and then along it
northwards till it vanished in forest. Slept without a fresh supply of
water.

_25th September, 1867._--Off at 5.30 A.M., through the same well-grown
forest we have passed and came to a village stockade, where the gates
were shut, and the men all outside, in fear of the Arabs; we then
descended from the ridge on which it stood, about a thousand feet,
into an immense plain, with a large river in the distance, some ten
miles off.

_26th September, 1867._--Two and a half hours brought us to the large
river we saw yesterday; it is more than a mile wide and full of
papyrus and other aquatic plants and very difficult to ford, as the
papyrus roots are hard to the bare feet, and we often plunged into
holes up to the waist. A loose mass floated in the middle of our path;
one could sometimes get on along this while it bent and heaved under
the weight, but through it he would plunge and find great difficulty
to get out: the water under this was very cold from evaporation; it
took an hour and a half to cross it. It is called Chisera, and winds
away to the west to fall into the Kalongosi and Moero. Many animals,
as elephants, tahetsis, zebras, and buffaloes, graze on the lon