Does Livingstone’s great forest between the course of the Upper Zambezi and that of the Kabompo still maintain itself, in spite of the reckless spirit of destruction inherent in all uneducated Negro tribes, who since the imposition of peace by the white man have been largely increasing the area of their settlement in Northern Barotseland? If the forest is still there, in whole or in part, why are no botanical reports and collections available? The botany of Barotseland, in common with its zoology, has never been efficiently explored and reported on since the land was first entered. Cattle apparently prosper in the whole country; yet the tsetse fly exists seemingly everywhere. Does it, north of the Zambezi and west of the Luañgwa, convey no germs? The time—it seems to me—has come when the British Empire, from London or from Cape Town, should have this country examined scientifically from west to east and north to south; not with anything but benevolent intentions towards its natives—Aluyi and Batonga, Basubia and Mabunda, Batonga and Baila, Bankoya and Kahonde, Valujazi and Valubale—but with the earnest endeavour to make fully known its resources and defects, its wonders and survivals, and the relation that Western Barotseland bears to the growing menace of South Africa: the spread of the Kalahari Desert, the drying up of once fully habitable land, the cause of ruin in South Angola, in Eastern Damaraland, and the vast, dead region north, east, south, and west of Lake Ngami. H. H. JOHNSTON. [Illustration: The Mokwai Mataŭka of Nalolo with her husband (standing) and interpreter (sitting) Photo by Mrs. Marshall] BAROTSELAND: EIGHT YEARS AMONG THE BAROTSE. CHAPTER I. The Barotse and their Origin. The origin of the Barotse is a matter of conflicting conjecture. It has been suggested by the Abarozwi of Southern Rhodesia that the Barotse are descendants of theirs and that Lewanika is a direct descendant from their royal house. The Barotse of Barotseland deny this _in toto_. They aver that they came south from the Congo Basin and found the Alunda and Balubale living in their country (_vide_ map). The Alunda and Balubale confirm the statement of the Barotse, and it is known that the Barotse lived for some years among the Lunda, gradually working south till they left the forest country on the Zambezi and came out on to the flat swampy country known to-day as the Barotse Valley. They were then sometimes called by foreigners the Barozi or Barotse, but were better styled the A-luyi and spoke Siluyi and in our days Sirozi or Sikololo.