We shall still
do well, and shall probably encounter more adventures than we should
have met with had we confined ourselves to simple trading with the
natives. I should, however, have preferred that to undergoing the
fatigues of hunting; besides which we might the sooner have returned
with our cargo of ivory to the coast."

Several more days passed by during which we came to three spots where we
were able to obtain a sufficient amount of water to satisfy ourselves
and our thirsty animals. Sometimes for miles together not a drop could
be procured, and had it not been for the tubers, and the little red
melons I have described, the horses and our patient ox must have
perished. At length the sheen of water in the bright sunlight was seen
in the distance. This time we were convinced that it was not a mirage.
We pushed forward, hoping that our sufferings from thirst were at an
end. Trees of greater height than any we had yet met with since leaving
the colony fringed the banks of a fine river. On examining the current
we found that it was flowing to the north-east, and we therefore hoped
that by following it up we should reach the lake for which we were
bound. Our black guide, however, advised that we should cross the
river, which was here fordable, and by steering north, considerably
shorten the journey. On wading through the water we looked out sharply
for crocodiles and hippopotami, lest one of those fresh-water monsters
should venture to attack us; we got over, however, without accident.
Having allowed our animals to drink their full of water, and replenished
our bottles, we encamped for the night under a magnificent _baobab_ tree
with a trunk seventy feet in girth as high as we could reach, while our
animals found an abundance of rich grass on which to satisfy their
hunger.

What pigmies we felt as we stood beneath that giant tree. An army might
have found shelter from the sun under its wide-spreading boughs. We
thought the spot a perfect paradise after our long journey across the
plain.

We had not long been seated round our camp-fire, when Jan made a dart at
his foot and caught a fly which had settled on it; and, exhibiting it to
my uncle, exclaimed--

"No good, no good!"

It was of a brownish colour with three yellow bars across the body, and
scarcely larger than a common house-fly. We soon saw others buzzing
about in considerable numbers.

I asked Jan what he meant.

"Das de _tsetse_: when bite ho