Nsama was so vacillating that I had no doubt but this was best.
Hamees' wife, seeing the preparations that were made for starting, thought that her father was to be attacked, so she, her attendants, and the guides decamped by night.

Hamees went again to Nsama and got other guides to enable us to go off at once.
_22nd September, 1867._--We went north for a couple of hours, then descended into the same valley as that in which I found Nsama.

This valley is on the slope of the watershed, and lies east and west: a ridge of dark-red sandstone, covered with trees, forms its side on the south.

Other ridges like this make the slope have the form of a stair with huge steps: the descent is gradually lost as we insensibly climb up the next ridge.

The first plain between the steps is at times swampy, and the paths are covered with the impressions of human feet, which, being hardened by the sun, make walking on their uneven surface very difficult.