I was able to shoot several animals during our stay at Mrera.  The forest outside of the cultivation teems with noble animals.  Zebra, giraffe, elephant, and rhinoceros are most common; ptarmigan and guinea-fowl were also plentiful.

The warriors of Mrera are almost all armed with muskets, of which they take great care.  They were very importunate in their demands for flints, bullets, and powder, which I always made it a point to refuse, lest at any moment a fracas occurring they might use the ammunition thus supplied to my own disadvantage.  The men of this village were an idle set, doing little but hunting, gaping, gossiping, and playing like great boys.  During the interval of my stay at Mrera I employed a large portion of my time in mending my shoes, and patching up the great rents in my clothes, which the thorn species, during the late marches, had almost destroyed.  Westward, beyond Mrera, was a wilderness, the transit of which we were warned would occupy nine days hence arose the necessity to purchase a large supply of grain, which, ere attempting the great uninhabited void in our front, was to be ground and sifted.

CHAPTER XI.  THROUGH UKAWENDI, UVINZA, AND UHHA, TO UJIJI.

Happy auspices,—­Ant-hills.—­The water-shed of the Tanganika Lion.  —­The king of Kasera.—­The home of the lion and the leopard.—­ A donkey frightens a leopard—­Sublime scenes in Kawendi,—­Starvation imminent.—­Amenities of travel in Africa.—­Black-mailers.—­The stormy children of Uhha.—­News of a white man.—­Energetic marches—­Mionvu, chief of tribute-takers.—­An escape at midnight.—­Toiling through the jungles.—­The Lake Mountains.—­ First view of the Tanganika.—­Arrival at Ujiji,—­The happy meeting with Livingstone.

We bade farewell to Mrera on the 17th of October, to continue our route north-westward.  All the men and I were firm friends now; all squabbling had long ceased.  Bombay and I had forgotten our quarrel; the kirangozi and myself were ready to embrace, so loving and affectionate were the terms upon which we stood towards one another.  Confidence returned to all hearts—­for now, as Mabruk Unyanyembe said, “we could smell the fish of the Tanganika.”  Unyanyembe, with all its disquietude, was far behind.  We could snap our fingers at that terrible Mirambo and his unscrupulous followers, and by-and-by, perhaps, we may be able to laugh at the timid seer who always prophesied portentous events—­Sheikh, the son of Nasib.  We laughed joyously, as we glided in Indian file through the young forest jungle beyond the clearing of Mrera, and boasted of our prowess.  Oh! we were truly brave that morning!

Emerging from the jungle, we entered a thin forest, where numerous ant-hills were seen like so many sand-dunes.  I imagine that these ant-hills were formed during a remarkably wet season, when, possibly, the forest-clad plain was inundated.  I have seen the ants at work by thousands, engaged in the work of erecting their hills in other districts suffering from inundation.  What a wonderful system of cells these tiny insects construct!  A perfect labyrinth—­cell within cell, room within room, hall within hall—­an exhibition of engineering talents and high architectural capacity—­a model city, cunningly contrived for safety and comfort!