eaving Cabango on the 21st, we crossed several little streams
running into the Chihombo on our left, and in one of them I saw tree
ferns ('Cyathea dregei') for the first time in Africa. The trunk was
about four feet high and ten inches in diameter. We saw also grass trees
of two varieties, which, in damp localities, had attained a height of
forty feet. On crossing the Chihombo, which we did about twelve miles
above Cabango, we found it waist-deep and rapid. We were delighted to
see the evidences of buffalo and hippopotami on its banks. As soon as we
got away from the track of the slave-traders, the more kindly spirit of
the southern Balonda appeared, for an old man brought a large present of
food from one of the villages, and volunteered to go as guide himself.
The people, however, of the numerous villages which we passed always
made efforts to detain us, that they might have a little trade in the
way of furnishing our suppers. At one village, indeed, they would not
show us the path at all unless we remained at least a day with them.
Having refused, we took a path in the direction we ought to go, but it
led us into an inextricable thicket. Returning to the village again, we
tried another footpath in a similar direction, but this led us into an
equally impassable and trackless forest. We were thus forced to come
back and remain. In the following morning they put us in the proper
path, which in a few hours led us through a forest that would otherwise
have taken us days to penetrate.

Beyond this forest we found the village of Nyakalonga, a sister of the
late Matiamvo, who treated us handsomely. She wished her people to guide
us to the next village, but this they declined unless we engaged in
trade. She then requested us to wait an hour or two till she could get
ready a present of meal, manioc roots, ground-nuts, and a fowl. It was
truly pleasant to meet with people possessing some civility, after the
hauteur we had experienced on the slave-path. She sent her son to the
next village without requiring payment. The stream which ran past her
village was quite impassable there, and for a distance of about a mile
on either side, the bog being soft and shaky, and, when the crust was
broken through, about six feet deep.

On the 28th we reached the village of the chief Bango (lat. 12d 22' 53"
S., long. 20d 58' E.), who brought us a handsome present of meal, and
the meat of an entire pallah. We here slaughtered the last of the cows