This was the first night that we spent beyond the limits of civilization. Our cork beds were now spread out for the first time. Though we afterwards found them convenient, we had hitherto been used to a softer couch, and might as well have tried to sleep on a section of Caithness pavement. Soon our rest was disturbed by other causes. When the tide ebbed, we were left on a mud bank far out of the river. The mosquitoes scented fresh blood, and attacked us in hundreds. We had already endured these little pests for four weeks at Quilimane. There every night as soon as the sun set we became their special prey. At first, they rather astonished us by showing that they could bite through a thick pair of trousers, though ultimately we became more familiar with them. But the mosquitoes of Quilimane were feeble compared with those of the desert. Moreover, we found it difficult to arrange beds and mosquito-curtains in the small space that was at our disposal. Consequently we suffered much from their attack—our faces were so bitten and swollen that we could hardly recognise each other. After spending three or four hours in trying to sleep, we passed a unanimous resolution that sleep was impossible, and as a measure of desperation we spent the remainder of the night in proposing riddles to each other! Next morning, as soon as the tide flowed, we resumed our miserable journey. We had to sit patiently under our curtains till the sun rose and drove the mosquitoes away. During these imprisonments we sometimes debated why the book of Exodus says nothing about the trouble that the Israelites must have had from mosquitoes in the wilderness, only we were inclined to think that these followers of Moses must have been as impregnable as the natives around us. Besides our curtains we tried another method of repelling this troublesome foe. We kept pieces of twisted paper smouldering by us, and the disagreeable smoke held the mosquitoes at bay. We were now far beyond the region of daily or even weekly newspapers, and when our supply of paper was exhausted, we burnt pieces of cloth. This method of defence was soon brought into discredit; one of the party lighted a cloth without twisting it sufficiently, and it suddenly flared up and set his mosquito curtain on fire! During the day as the boats moved wearily along we lay under our grass awning in a little space where we had scarcely room to turn. Our nights were extremely uncomfortable. While the angry mosquitoes were buzzing outside our curtains, the negroes were constantly talking and beating drums to frighten the wild beasts. As we proceeded up the river the water became very low, and our crew had to go out and put their shoulders to the boat in order to force it over sandbanks and along shallows. This was tedious work; but the richness of tropical life and scenery unfolded itself around us. Amidst the vast tangle of bushes and branches there sat birds of bright plumage which gazed on us as tamely