ed before them into the low,
flat basin of the Wami river, which during the rainy season becomes one
great swamp.

But the season, at the time our travellers passed over the Makata
Plain--as the basin is called--was soon after the effects of the violent
monsoon had disappeared, in July, when the land presents an unusually
bleached appearance; the grass is crispy, ripe, and extremely dry, the
ground is seamed with ugly rents and gape, and the rivers, Little Makata
and Mbengerenga, are but little better than small rivulets. The
caravans were therefore enabled to cross the breadth of the Makata Plain
within two days, and arrived at Mbumi in Usagara on the evening of the
second day.

From Mbumi, in the same order as before, avoiding the Mukondokwa Yalley,
the steep passes of Bubeho, and the desolate, forlorn-looking plains of
Ugogo, the lengthy file of men--carriers, soldiers, and slaves--skirted
the eastern end of the Mukondokwa range, and on the third day from
Simbamwenni, arrived in a country which differed materially in aspect
from that which they had just left. Mountains of a loftier altitude, in
peak upon peak, in tier upon tier, range upon range, met the eye
everywhere. Green trees covered their slopes in an apparently endless
expanse of vegetation. The sycamore, the tamarind, the beautiful mimosa
and kolqual vied with each other in height and beauty, while a thousand
other trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers aided to give verdancy and
freshness to the scene.

Down the hard, steep, rocky beds of granite and sandstone, with here and
there basalt and porphyry, flint, and quartz, foamed the sparkling
streams, which, when encountered on an African journey, give zest to the
travel and add something to the pleasures of memory. A deep gaping
fissure in a high jutting wall of rock, through which bubbled the clear
water in volumes, or a great towering rock, with perpendicular walls, to
which clung, despite the apparent impossibility, ferns, and plants, and
moss, thick and velvety, or a conical hill, which ambitiously hid its
head in clouds, were scenes to be treasured up when the march should
hereafter become monotonous through excessive sameness of feature.

When they were in camp and had rested, our young friends went into
raptures over the bold beauty of mountain scenery, and Belim, and
Abdullah, and Mussoud were constantly heard uttering their exclamations
of admiration. Selim especially, imbued as he was with th