feeling the importance of his commission, essayed to issue his commands in true British fashion by using a few words he had picked up from the English lieutenant in Toro. He drilled his men just outside our tent door, and it was evident that the language of their general, as he bawled out incomprehensible English, was quite a conundrum to the men, and in concealed whispers he was obliged to repeat his orders in the native tongue. A remarkably fine view of Ruwenzori snows was obtained at the junction of Ankole and Toro. With no cloud to intercept, miles of glittering ice stood out against a sapphire sky, and pushed down a hundred streams that tumbled in impetuous speed and flowed as swift rivulets through the forests that crossed our path. Only those who have known the weariness of continual walking in the tropics can rightly appreciate the joy that these forest shades and the cool, refreshing rivers bring. At no time of the year could the country have been seen to better advantage; the grass fires had carried off all the long withered grass, and the hills were now carpetted with fresh, green glades. The forests displayed a strange variety of colouring, for the young buds of spring, the luxuriant verdure of summer, blended in exquisite contrast and harmony with the gold and ruddy tints of autumn. Shrubs of wild jessamine and seven-petalled tuber roses were in rich bloom on the roadside. These latter are called by the natives “Eky skulema njoju,” “that which gets the better of the elephants,” for although the bark is comparatively slender, it can stubbornly resist the force of the powerful elephant trunks that make matchwood of the larger forest trees. Two days further marching brought us to the boundary of Ankole, and glad were we to leave behind the rains of Toro, which had made the paths so slimy that with difficulty we maintained the perpendicular. Our peaceable caravan was evidently mistaken for a raiding horde. The villagers were in a most perturbed state of mind as we pressed on; the men collected together all their women, children, and goats and packed them off with all speed to hide in the swamps and hills, while a few of them remained hidden on the outskirts of the huts to sound an alarm at our approach.