the party is working like
a machine. I give my orders to Manwa Sera, and never have to repeat
them." Would that he had had such a company before!

On the 25th August the party started. On the 8th October they reached
Tanganyika, and rested, for they were tired, and several were sick,
including Livingstone, who had been ill with his bowel disorder. The
march went on slowly, and with few incidents. As the season advanced,
rain, mist, swollen streams, and swampy ground became familiar. At the
end of the year they were approaching the river Chambeze. Christmas had
its thanksgiving: "I thank the good Lord for the good gift of his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord."

In the second week of January they came near Bangweolo, and the reign
of Neptune became incessant. We are told of cold rainy weather;
sometimes a drizzle, sometimes an incessant pour; swollen streams and
increasing sponges,--making progress a continual struggle. Yet, as he
passes through a forest, he has an eye to its flowers, which are
numerous and beautiful:

"There are many flowers in the forest; marigolds, a white
jonquil-looking flower without smell, many orchids, white,
yellow, and pink asclepias, with bunches of French-white
flowers, clematis--_Methonica gloriosa_, gladiolus, and blue
and deep purple polygalas, grasses with white starry
seed-vessels, and spikelets of brownish red and yellow.
Besides these, there are beautiful blue flowering bulbs, and
new flowers of pretty, delicate form and but little scent. To
this list may be added balsams, composite of blood-red color
and of purple; other flowers of liver color, bright canary
yellow, pink orchids on spikes thickly covered all round, and
of three inches in length; spiderworts of fine blue or yellow
or even pink. Different colored asclepiadeae; beautiful yellow
and red umbelliferous flowering plants; dill and wild
parsnips; pretty flowering aloes, yellow and red, in one
whorl of blossoms; peas and many other flowering plants which
I do not know."

Observations were taken with unremitting diligence, except when, as was
now common, nothing could be seen in the heavens. As they advanced, the
weather became worse. It rained as if nothing but rain were ever known
in the watershed. The path lay across flooded rivers, which were
distinguished by their currents only from the flooded country along
their banks. Dr. Livingstone had