Having feasted my eyes long on the beautiful sight, I returned to my friends at Kalai, and saying to Sekeletu that he had nothing else worth showing in his country, his curiosity was excited to visit it the next day.  I returned with the intention of taking a lunar observation from the island itself, but the clouds were unfavorable, consequently all my determinations of position refer to Kalai. (Lat. 17d 51’ 54” S., long. 25d 41’ E.) Sekeletu acknowledged to feeling a little nervous at the probability* of being sucked into the gulf before reaching the island.  His companions amused themselves by throwing stones down, and wondered to see them diminishing in size, and even disappearing, before they reached the water at the bottom.

   * In modern American English, the word “possibility” is more
   appropriate here, and elsewhere in the text where
   “probability” is used.—­A.  L., 1997.

I had another object in view in my return to the island.  I observed that it was covered with trees, the seeds of which had probably come down with the stream from the distant north, and several of which I had seen nowhere else, and every now and then the wind wafted a little of the condensed vapor over it, and kept the soil in a state of moisture, which caused a sward of grass, growing as green as on an English lawn.  I selected a spot—­not too near the chasm, for there the constant deposition of the moisture nourished numbers of polypi of a mushroom shape and fleshy consistence, but somewhat back—­and made a little garden.  I there planted about a hundred peach and apricot stones, and a quantity of coffee-seeds.  I had attempted fruit-trees before, but, when left in charge of my Makololo friends, they were always allowed to wither, after having vegetated, by being forgotten.  I bargained for a hedge with one of the Makololo, and if he is faithful, I have great hopes of Mosioatunya’s abilities as a nursery-man.  My only source of fear is the hippopotami, whose footprints I saw on the island.  When the garden was prepared, I cut my initials on a tree, and the date 1855.  This was the only instance in which I indulged in this piece of vanity.  The garden stands in front, and, were there no hippopotami, I have no doubt but this will be the parent of all the gardens which may yet be in this new country.  We then went up to Kalai again.

On passing up we had a view of the hut on the island where my goods had lain so long in safety.  It was under a group of palm-trees, and Sekeletu informed me that, so fully persuaded were most of the Makololo of the presence of dangerous charms in the packages, that, had I not returned to tell them the contrary, they never would have been touched.  Some of the diviners had been so positive in their decisions on the point, that the men who lifted a bag thought they felt a live kid in it.  The diviners always quote their predictions when they happen to tally with the event.  They declared that the whole party which