great abundance of the dried stalks of a water-loving plant, a sort of
herbaceous acacia, with green pea-shaped flowers, proves that at other
times it is damp enough. The marks of people's feet floundering in
slush, but now baked, show that the country can be sloppy.

The headman of the village where we spent the night of 17th is a
martyr to rheumatism. He asked for medicine, and when I gave some he
asked me to give it to him out of my own hand. He presented me with a
basket of siroko and of green sorghum as a fee, of which I was very
glad, for my own party were suffering, and I had to share out the
little portion of flour I had reserved to myself.

_19th May, 1866._--Coming on with what carriers we could find at the
crossing place, we reached the confluence without seeing it; and
Matumora being about two miles up the Loendi, we sent over to him for
aid. He came over this morning early,--a tall, well-made man, with a
somewhat severe expression of countenance, from a number of wrinkles
on his forehead. He took us over the Loendi, which is decidedly the
parent stream of the Rovuma, though that as it comes from the west
still retains the name Loendi from the south-west here, and is from
150 to 200 yards wide, while the Rovuma above Matawatawa is from 200
to 250, full of islands, rocks, and sandbanks. The Loendi has the same
character. We can see the confluence from where we cross about 2' to
the north. Both rivers are rapid, shoal, and sandy; small canoes are
used on them, and the people pride themselves on their skilful
management: in this the women seem in no way inferior to the men.

In looking up the Loendi we see a large granitic peak called Nkanjé,
some 20 miles off, and beyond it the dim outline of distant highlands,
in which seams of coal are exposed. Pieces of the mineral are found in