although we had been almost without food for three days. Our captives were terribly thin, and these outlying bands of raiders are evidently leading but a hand-to-mouth existence; and as the Baleka have cut their boats adrift by wiping out the whole country behind them (in their wanton madness they even cut down the banana palms), I am afraid the people of Bugoie will eventually succumb, although hitherto they have held out. As yet they have only had to repel the attacks of small bands, the main mass of the Baleka being still occupied in demolishing the mtama fields of northern Mushari. When the general onslaught begins, I think they will have to give way before the thousands of savages rendered desperate by the impossibility of retreat, and those, too, men of superior courage. Those Baleka that I had the chance of observing at close quarters were well made and pleasant-featured, averaging not more than 5 ft. Their possessions--baskets, shields, knives, etc.--are very crude, and their dress consists of air and an occasional scrap of hide, human or otherwise. Whether they have a definite country or not, I cannot say; some natives told me that they have, many days’ journey west of Kivu, while the majority say that they lead a nomadic existence like a flight of locusts, eating up just as effectually whatever they come across. At a rough estimate, there cannot have been less than 5,000 of them in the countries I passed through. The next morning we came on another small encampment, which, fortunately, had been unable to see our fires, owing to the dense bush, although we were not half a mile away. To my amazement our guide, seeing one gentleman apart from the rest and unarmed, rushed in and speared him. The others turned on me, but were dispersed with a couple of shots. This was the last we saw of the Baleka, as, in the evening, we reached the outskirts of Bugoie, but skulls and charred relics for many miles bore witness to their recent raids. Very glad I was of a night’s rest, for although the moral and sometimes physical effect of firearms on these unsophisticated people is very great, still the danger of being rushed at night, or in the dense forest and long grass, made it very anxious work; also the smallness of my caravan--twelve carriers with only two sniders, and such excitable curs at the end of them that I forbade them to fire--made us a tempting prey for any large number of natives we might meet; however, this was balanced by the rapidity of our movements and unexpected appearance, which would have been impossible with a larger caravan.