Kindness of my Men—­Makololo Remarks on the rich uncultivated Valleys—­Difference in the Color of Africans—­Reach a Village of the Chiboque—­The Head Man’s impudent Message—­Surrounds our Encampment with his Warriors—­The Pretense—­Their Demand—­Prospect of a Fight—­Way in which it was averted—­Change our Path—­Summer—­ Fever—­Beehives and the Honey-guide—­Instinct of Trees—­Climbers—­The Ox Sinbad—­Absence of Thorns in the Forests—­Plant peculiar to a forsaken Garden—­Bad Guides—­Insubordination suppressed—­Beset by Enemies—­A Robber Party—­More Troubles—­Detained by Ionga Panza—­His Village—­Annoyed by Bangala Traders—­My Men discouraged—­Their Determination and Precaution.

24Th of February.  On reaching unflooded lands beyond the plain, we found the villages there acknowledged the authority of the chief named Katende, and we discovered, also, to our surprise, that the almost level plain we had passed forms the watershed between the southern and northern rivers, for we had now entered a district in which the rivers flowed in a northerly direction into the Kasai or Loke, near to which we now were, while the rivers we had hitherto crossed were all running southward.  Having met with kind treatment and aid at the first village, Katema’s guides returned, and we were led to the N.N.W. by the inhabitants, and descended into the very first really deep valley we had seen since leaving Kolobeng.  A stream ran along the bottom of a slope of three or four hundred yards from the plains above.

We crossed this by a rustic bridge at present submerged thigh-deep by the rains.  The trees growing along the stream of this lovely valley were thickly planted and very high.  Many had sixty or eighty feet of clean straight trunk, and beautiful flowers adorned the ground beneath them.  Ascending the opposite side, we came, in two hours’ time, to another valley, equally beautiful, and with a stream also in its centre.  It may seem mere trifling to note such an unimportant thing as the occurrence of a valley, there being so many in every country under the sun; but as these were branches of that in which the Kasai or Loke flows, and both that river and its feeders derive their water in a singular manner from the valley sides, I may be excused for calling particular attention to the more furrowed nature of the country.

At different points on the slopes of these valleys which we now for the first time entered, there are oozing fountains, surrounded by clumps of the same evergreen, straight, large-leaved trees we have noticed along the streams.  These spots are generally covered with a mat of grassy vegetation, and possess more the character of bogs than of fountains.  They slowly discharge into the stream below, and are so numerous along both banks as to give a peculiar character to the landscape.  These groups of sylvan vegetation are generally of a rounded form, and the trunks of the trees are tall and straight, while those