during the worst of the pelting. I was seven days southing to Mamohela,
Katomba's camp, and quite knocked up and exhausted. I went into winter
quarters on 7th February, 1870.

_7th February, 1870._--This was the camp of the headman of the ivory
horde now away for ivory. Katomba, as Moene-mokaia is called, was now all
kindness. We were away from his Ujijian associates, and he seemed to
follow his natural bent without fear of the other slave-traders, who all
hate to see me as a spy on their proceedings. Rest, shelter, and boiling
all the water I used, and above all the new species of potato called
Nyumbo, much famed among the natives as restorative, soon put me all to
rights. Katomba supplied me liberally with nyumbo; and, but for a
slightly medicinal taste, which is got rid of by boiling in two waters,
this vegetable would be equal to English potatoes.

_11th February, 1870._--First of all it was proposed to go off to the
Lualaba in the north-west, in order to procure _Holcus sorghum_ or dura
flour, that being, in Arab opinion, nearly equal to wheat, or as they
say "heating," while the maize flour we were obliged to use was cold or
cooling.

_13th February, 1870._--I was too ill to go through mud waist deep, so I
allowed Mohamad (who was suffering much) to go away alone in search of
ivory. As stated above, shelter and nyumbo proved beneficial.

_22nd February, 1870._--Falls between Vira and Baker's Water seen by
Wanyamwezi. This confirms my conjecture on finding Lualaba at a lower
level than Tanganyika. Bin Habib went to fight the Batusi, but they were
too strong, and he turned.