eliverance from
vile bondage, and breathed prayers to him to continue in his care of
them.

Long before morning dawned, they felt that the character of the country
was changed; for rounded shadows heaving upwards gave them an idea that
hills were becoming frequent, and that these they saw were but the
vanguard of some range they were approaching. The morning and its
welcome light confirmed this opinion; for before them rose a majestic
ridge of mountains, clothed from top to base with greenest verdure.

Prudence counselled them to seek the mountains by the most unlikely way,
and they accordingly adopted the precaution, and were soon scaling a
steep slope, overgrown with the feathery bamboo. From the eminence they
attained, they turned their eyes to note the plain they had left, which
was now spread out before them in one grand prospect, while it spoke or
revealed nothing of the misery and sorrow which they knew existed in
some part of it, among the human beings driven to hopeless bondage by
the cruel Wazavila. Unable to dwell upon its false and treacherous
beauty, they turned towards the mountains, which, so far, had nothing of
the ominous or fatal in its features for them.

The sun seemed a long time coming out, they thought, as they looked
towards the east; but then it was the rainy season throughout Central
Africa, which had been heralded in by that awful storm on the sea of
Ujiji, and out of which they had escaped to experience the privations of
bondage; and the lowering mist and humid fog hovering over the
crag-bound ridges above them was the result of the rains that had lately
submerged the Bikwa Plain throughout its length and breadth.

About noon, after they had lost themselves in the deep folds of the
mountains, our party rested to recover their strength, and to aid the
recovery more rapidly by grinding some of their corn rations between
their jaws. Simba thought this very dry eating, since they were free,
and expressed a decided objection to remain much longer without meat,
which, in his opinion, was the only food fit for a free man. Kalulu
agreed with him in all he said, and volunteered to accompany any man in
a search for game, which, he said, ought to be plentiful in such
solitudes. Whereupon Simba agreed to accompany him; but since he did
not know much about a bow, he would take his spear, which he could throw
as well as any other man, while Kalulu could take a bow and his quiver
of arrows.

Mat