since
little light could pass through the interlacing foliage of the tops of
those mighty trees.

Towards evening we came to a clearing in this forest, it may have been
four or five miles in diameter, but whether it was natural or artificial
I am not sure. I think, however, that it was probably the former for
two reasons: the hollow nature of the ground, which lay a good many feet
lower than the surrounding forest, and the wonderful fertility of the
soil, which suggested that it had once been deposited upon an old
lake bottom. Never did I see such crops as those that grew upon that
clearing; they were magnificent.

Wending our way along the road that ran through the tall corn, for here
every inch was cultivated, we came suddenly upon the capital of the
Black Kendah, which was known as Simba Town. It was a large place,
somewhat different from any other African settlement with which I
am acquainted, inasmuch as it was not only stockaded but completely
surrounded by a broad artificial moat filled with water from a stream
that ran through the centre of the town, over which moat there were
four timber bridges placed at the cardinal points of the compass. These
bridges were strong enough to bear horses or stock, but so made that in
the event of attack they could be destroyed in a few minutes.

Riding through the eastern gate, a stout timber structure on the farther
side of the corresponding bridge, where the king was received with
salutes by an armed guard, we entered one of the main streets of the
town which ran from north to south and from east to west. It was broad
and on either side of it were the dwellings of the inhabitants set close
together because the space within the stockade was limited. These were
not huts but square buildings of mud with flat roofs of some kind of
cement. Evidently they were built upon the model of Oriental and North
African houses of which some debased tradition remained with these
people. Thus a stairway or ladder ran from the interior to the roof of
each house, whereon its inhabitants were accustomed, as I discovered
afterwards, to sleep during a good part of the year, also to eat in the
cool of the day. Many of them were gathered there now to watch us pass,
men, women, and children, all except the little ones decently clothed in
long garments of various colours, the women for the most part in white
and the men in a kind of bluish linen.

I saw at once that they had already heard of the f