to lighten her, we put some into the boats and towed them astern. In the
dark, one of the boats was capsized; but all in it, except one poor
fellow who could not swim, were picked up. His loss threw a gloom over
us all, and added to the chagrin we often felt at having been so
ill-served in our sorry craft.

Next day we arrived at the village of Mboma (16 degrees 56 minutes 30
seconds S.), where the people raised large quantities of rice, and were
eager traders; the rice was sold at wonderfully low rates, and we could
not purchase a tithe of the food brought for sale.

A native minstrel serenaded us in the evening, playing several quaint
tunes on a species of one stringed fiddle, accompanied by wild, but not
unmusical songs. He told the Makololo that he intended to play all night
to induce us to give him a present. The nights being cold, the
thermometer falling to 47 degrees, with occasional fogs, he was asked if
he was not afraid of perishing from cold; but, with the genuine spirit of
an Italian organ-grinder, he replied, "Oh, no; I shall spend the night
with my white comrades in the big canoe; I have often heard of the white
men, but have never seen them till now, and I must sing and play well to
them." A small piece of cloth, however, bought him off, and he moved
away in good humour. The water of the river was 70 degrees at sunrise,
which was 23 degrees warmer than the air at the same time, and this
caused fogs, which rose like steam off the river. When this is the case
cold bathing in the mornings at this time of the year is improper, for,
instead of a glow on coming out, one is apt to get a chill; the air being
so much colder than the water.

A range of hills, commencing opposite Senna, comes to within two or three
miles of Mboma village, and then runs in a north-westerly direction; the