It is so dense that a tiger could not crawl through
it; it is so impenetrable that an elephant could not force his
way! Were a bottleful of concentrated miasma, such as we inhale
herein, collected, what a deadly poison, instantaneous in its
action, undiscoverable in its properties, would it be! I think
it would act quicker than chloroform, be as fatal as prussic
acid.
Horrors upon horrors are in it. Boas above our heads,
snakes and scorpions under our feet. Land-crabs, terrapins,
and iguanas move about in our vicinity. Malaria is in the air
we breathe; the road is infested with "hotwater" ants, which
bite our legs until we dance and squirm about like madmen.
Yet, somehow, we are fortunate enough to escape annihilation,
and many another traveller might also. Yet here, in verity,
are the ten plagues of Egypt, through which a traveller in
these regions must run the gauntlet:
1. Plague of boas. | 7. Suffocation from the
2. Red ants, or "hot-water." | density of the jungle.
3 Scorpions. | 8. Stench.
4. Thorns and spear cacti. | 9. Thorns in the road.
5. Numerous impediments. | 10. Miasma.
6 Black mud knee-deep. |
May 1st. Kingaru Hera. - We heard news of a great storm having
raged at Zanzibar, which has destroyed every house and every
ship, - so the story runs; - and the same destruction has visited
Bagamoyo and Whinde, they say.
