cloth,--the cloth being common American sheeting. Before we left
Mbumi, a party of forty men and women of the Waquiva tribe,
pressed by famine, were driven there to purchase food. The same
tribe had, however killed many of Mbumi's subjects not long
since, and therefore, in African revenge, the chief seized them
all, saying he would send them off for sale to Zanzibar market
unless they could give a legitimate reason for the cruelty they
had committed. These Waquiva, I was given to understand,
occupied the steep hills surrounding this place. They were a
squalid-looking set, like the generality of the inhabitants of
this mountainous region.

This march led us over a high hill to the Mdunhwi river, another
tributary to the Mukondokua. It is all clad in the upper regions
with the slender pole-trees which characterise these hills,
intermingled with bamboo; but the bottoms are characterised by a
fine growth of fig-trees of great variety along with high
grasses; whilst near the villages were found good gardens of
plantains, and numerous Palmyra trees. The rainy season being
not far off, the villagers were busy in burning rubble and
breaking their ground. Within their reach everywhere is the
sarsaparilla vine, but growing as a weed, for they know nothing
of its value.

Rising up from the deep valley of Mdunhwi we had to cross another
high ridge before descending to the also deep valley of Chongue,
as picturesque a country as the middle heights of the Himalayas,
dotted on the ridges and spur-slopes by numerous small conical-
hut villages; but all so poor that we could not, had we wanted
it, have purchased provisions for a day's consumption.