Next Day We Passed Through A Piece Of Forest
So Dense That No One Could Have Penetrated It Without An Axe.
It was flooded,
not by the river, but by the heavy rains which poured down every day,
and kept those who had clothing constantly wet.
I observed,
in this piece of forest, a very strong smell of sulphureted hydrogen.
This I had observed repeatedly in other parts before.
I had attacks of fever of the intermittent type again and again,
in consequence of repeated drenchings in these unhealthy spots.
On the 11th and 12th we were detained by incessant rains,
and so heavy I never saw the like in the south. I had a little tapioca
and a small quantity of Libonta meal, which I still reserved for worse times.
The patience of my men under hunger was admirable; the actual want
of the present is never so painful as the thought of getting nothing
in the future. We thought the people of some large hamlets very niggardly
and very independent of their chiefs, for they gave us and Manenko nothing,
though they had large fields of maize in an eatable state around them.
When she went and kindly begged some for me, they gave her five ears only.
They were subjects of her uncle; and, had they been Makololo,
would have been lavish in their gifts to the niece of their chief.
I suspected that they were dependents of some of Shinte's principal men,
and had no power to part with the maize of their masters.
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