We left Bango, and proceeded to the River Loembwe, which flows to the N.N.E., and abounds in hippopotami.

It is about sixty yards wide, and four feet deep, but usually contains much less water than this, for there are fishing-weirs placed right across it.

Like all the African rivers in this quarter, it has morasses on each bank, yet the valley in which it winds, when seen from the high lands above, is extremely beautiful.

This valley is about the fourth of a mile wide, and it was easy to fancy the similarity of many spots on it to the goodly manors in our own country, and feel assured that there was still ample territory left for an indefinite increase of the world's population.

The villages are widely apart and difficult of access, from the paths being so covered with tall grass that even an ox can scarcely follow the track.
The grass cuts the feet of the men; yet we met a woman with a little child, and a girl, wending their way home with loads of manioc.