In one place we lighted on a party of people living on Masuko fruit, and making mats of the Shuare[45] palm petioles.  We have hard lines ourselves; nothing but a little maere porridge and dampers.  We roast a little grain, and boil it, to make believe it is coffee.  The guide, a maundering fellow, turned because he was not fed better than at home, and because he knew that but for his obstinacy we should not have lost the dog.  It is needless to repeat that it is all forest on the northern slopes of the mountains—­open glade and miles of forest; ground at present all sloppy; oozes full and overflowing—­feet constantly wet.  Rivulets rush strongly with clear water, though they are in flood:  we can guess which are perennial and which mere torrents that dry up; they flow northwards and westwards to the Chambeze.

17th January, 1867.—­Detained in an old Babisa slaving encampment by set-in rain till noon, then set off in the midst of it.  Came to hills of dolomite, but all the rocks were covered with white lichens (ash-coloured).  The path took us thence along a ridge, which separates the Lotiri, running westwards, and the Lobo, going northwards, and we came at length to the Lobo, travelling along its banks till we reached the village called Lisunga, which was about five yards broad, and very deep, in flood, with clear water, as indeed are all the rivulets now; they can only be crossed by felling a tree on the bant and letting it fall across.  They do not abrade their banks—­vegetation protects them.  I observed that the brown ibis, a noisy bird, took care to restrain his loud, harsh voice when driven from the tree in which his nest was placed, and when about a quarter of a mile off, then commenced his loud “Ha-ha-ha!”

18th January, 1867.—­The headman of Lisunga, Chaokila, took our present, and gave nothing in return.  A deputy from Chitapangwa came afterwards and demanded a larger present, as he was the greater man, and said that if we gave him two fathoms of calico, he would order all the people to bring plenty of food, not here only, but all the way to the paramount chief of Lobemba, Chitapangwa.  I proposed that he should begin by ordering Chaokila to give us some in return for our present.  This led, as Chaokila told us, to the cloth being delivered to the deputy, and we saw that all the starvelings south of the Chambeze were poor dependants on the Babemba, or rather their slaves, who cultivate little, and then only in the rounded patches above mentioned, so as to prevent their conquerors from taking away more than a small share.  The subjects are Babisa—­a miserable lying lot of serfs.  This tribe is engaged in the slave-trade, and the evil effects are seen in their depopulated country and utter distrust of every one.

19th January, 1867.—­Raining most of the day.  Worked out the longitude of the mountain-station said to be Mpini, but it will be better to name it Chitane’s, as I could not get the name from our maundering guide; he probably did not know it.  Lat, 11 deg. 9’ 2” S.; long. 32 deg. 1’ 30” E.