smoothed over, in a few places the current had increased in strength. As
the river fell rapidly while we were on the journey, the cataract of
Morumbwa did not differ materially from what it was when discovered. Some
fishermen assured us that it was not visible when the river was at its
fullest, and that the current was then not very strong. On this occasion
we travelled on the right bank, and found it, with the additional
inconvenience of rain, as rough and fatiguing as the left had been. Our
progress was impeded by the tall wet grass and dripping boughs, and
consequent fever. During the earlier part of the journey we came upon a
few deserted hamlets only; but at last in a pleasant valley we met some
of the people of the country, who were miserably poor and hungry. The
women were gathering wild fruits in the woods. A young man having
consented for two yards of cotton cloth to show us a short path to the
cataract led us up a steep hill to a village perched on the edge of one
of its precipices; a thunderstorm coming on at the time, the headman
invited us to take shelter in a hut until it had passed. Our guide
having informed him of what he knew and conceived to be our object, was
favoured in return with a long reply in well-sounding blank verse; at the
end of every line the guide, who listened with deep attention, responded
with a grunt, which soon became so ludicrous that our men burst into a
loud laugh. Neither the poet nor the responsive guide took the slightest
notice of their rudeness, but kept on as energetically as ever to the
end. The speech, or more probably our bad manners, made some impression
on our guide, for he declined, although offered double pay, to go any
further.

A great deal of fever comes in with March and April; in March, if
considerable intervals take place between the rainy days, and in April
always, for then large surfaces of mud and decaying vegetation are
exposed to the hot sun. In general an attack does not continue long, but