tired in the evening by my long exertions; but I was amply compensated for all inconvenience and fatigue by the many objects of interest that I saw and collected. Many parts of the wood were overgrown with a tall spreading shrub covered with large white blossoms that perfumed the air with their fragrance. In one of the glades I found two new kinds of lilies, one with a handsome violet-coloured flower. A leaf-beetle of a yellow-ochre tint had settled on the other lily; and I likewise discovered another species with red and blue stripes, and two new species of weevils on the young sprouts of the musetta bushes. As I went back I caught three sorts of little rose-beetles on the white-flowering shrubs; and in a dry grassy hollow I found the species of Lytta which I had already seen in Sechele’s country during my second journey.
Having arranged to join a buffalo-hunt on the 24th, I retired to my hut rather earlier than usual on the previous evening; and it was scarcely nine o’clock when I was roused by a noise like sounds of weeping coming from the river. At first I did not take any particular heed; but finding that the noise continued, and that there was a murmur of voices that seemed to increase, I had the curiosity to send Narri, one of my servants, to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. In a few minutes he came running back with the news that Queen Moquai was having one of her maids drowned. Unable to believe that she could be capable of such an act, I hurried out, determined to convince myself by the testimony of my own eyes before I would credit so shameful a report.
A crowd of men and women, brawling, screeching,
