ene on which
we entered after leaving this spot: the only vegetation was a low scrub
in deep sand; not a bird or insect enlivened the landscape. It was,
without exception, the most uninviting prospect I ever beheld; and,
to make matters worse, our guide Shobo wandered on the second day. We
coaxed him on at night, but he went to all points of the compass on the
trails of elephants which had been here in the rainy season, and then
would sit down in the path, and in his broken Sichuana say, "No water,
all country only; Shobo sleeps; he breaks down; country only;" and then
coolly curl himself up and go to sleep. The oxen were terribly fatigued
and thirsty; and on the morning of the fourth day, Shobo, after
professing ignorance of every thing, vanished altogether. We went on in
the direction in which we last saw him, and about eleven o'clock began
to see birds; then the trail of a rhinoceros. At this we unyoked the
oxen, and they, apparently knowing the sign, rushed along to find the
water in the River Mahabe, which comes from the Tamunak'le, and lay to
the west of us. The supply of water in the wagons had been wasted by one
of our servants, and by the afternoon only a small portion remained for
the children. This was a bitterly anxious night; and next morning the
less there was of water, the more thirsty the little rogues became. The
idea of their perishing before our eyes was terrible. It would almost
have been a relief to me to have been reproached with being the entire
cause of the catastrophe; but not one syllable of upbraiding was uttered
by their mother, though the tearful eye told the agony within. In the
afternoon of the fifth day, to our inexpressible relief, some of the men
returned with a supply of that fluid of which we had never before felt
the true value.

The cattle, in rushing along to the water in the Mahabe, probably
crossed a small patch of trees containing tsetse, an insect which was
shortly to become a perfect pest to us. Shobo had found his way to the
Bayeiye, and appeared, when we came up to the river, at the head of a
party; and, as he wished to show his importance before his friends, he
walked up boldly and commanded our whole cavalcade to stop, and to bring
forth fire and tobacco, while he coolly sat down and smoked his pipe. It
was such an inimitably natural way of showing off, that we all stopped
to admire the acting, and, though he had left us previously in the
lurch, we all liked Shobo, a fine