of hippopotami to live: when the river becomes fordable in many
places, as it is said to do in August and September, they must find it
difficult to exist.

_15th June, 1866._--Another three hours' march brought us from the
sleeping-place on the Rovuma to Metaba, the chief of which, Kinazombé,
is an elderly man, with a cunning and severe cast of countenance, and
a nose Assyrian in type; he has built a large reception house, in
which a number of half-caste Arabs have taken up their abode. A great
many of the people have guns, and it is astonishing to see the number
of slave-taming sticks abandoned along the road as the poor wretches
gave in, and professed to have lost all hope of escape. Many huts have
been built by the Arabs to screen themselves from the rain as they
travelled. At Kinazombé's the second crop of maize is ready, so the
hunger will not be very much felt.

_16th June, 1866._--We heard very sombre accounts of the country in
front:--four or five days to Mtarika, and then ten days through jungle
to Mataka's town: little food at Mtarika's, but plenty with Mataka,
who is near the Lake. The Rovuma trends southerly after we leave
Ngozo, and Masusa on that river is pointed out as south-west from
Metaba, so at Ngozo the river may be said to have its furthest
northing. Masusa is reported to be five days, or at least fifty miles,
from Metaba. The route now becomes south-west.

The cattle of Africa are like the Indian buffalo, only partially
tamed; they never give their milk without the presence of the calf or
its stuffed skin, the "fulchan." The women adjacent to Mozambique
partake a little of the wild animal's nature, for, like most members
of the inferior races of animals, they refuse all intercourse with