_May 25._—On the 25th, Frank Pocock, being too lame, from his ulcers, to travel overland, the conduct of the canoe-party was given to Manwa Sera and Chowpereh, and the care of the boat to Uledi, the coxswain. Besides Frank, there were thirteen persons afflicted with ulcerous sores, dysentery, and general debility; upon whom, on account of their utter inability to travel by land or climb over the rocks, the humourist Baraka had bestowed, out of his fertile brain, the sobriquet of Goee- Goee, a term quite untranslatable as regards its descriptive humour, though “despairing, forlorn, good-for-nothings” would be a tolerably fair equivalent. With decent, sober Christian souls the party would have been distinguished as the “sick list”; but Baraka was not a Christian, but a reckless good-natured _gamin_, of Mohammedan tendencies. Turning to Frank, he said to him, with a broad grin, “Ah, ha! is our little master become a Goee-Goee too? Inshallah! we shall all become Goee-Goees now, if our masters get on the list.” Frank laughingly assented, and hobbled to the boat to take a seat. [Illustration: VIEW FROM THE TABLE-LAND NEAR MOWA.] I led the active members of the Expedition and the women and children up the mountain from the lower Nzabi Creek, and, having well surmounted the table-land, struck west from Nzabi to Mowa, a distance of three miles. The plateau was a rolling country, and extremely picturesque in the populated part which bordered the river, thickly sprinkled with clusters of the guinea-palm and plantain groves, under which nestled the elegant huts of the Babwendé. This palm furnishes the natives with a delicious wine, and also with a yellow butter, which may be turned into a good burning oil, an unguent for the body, or an oil for stewing their provisions, bananas, yams, or potatoes; or served up with herbs, chicken, and chilies, for “palm-oil chop”; or as an excellent sop, when hot, for their cassava pudding. [Illustration: CUTTING OUT THE NEW “LIVINGSTONE” CANOE.]