_28th, Friday_.--Made two treks to-day. Crossed several bad drifts, but the scenery is very grand and beautiful, passing between lofty and grotesque granite conical hills, beautifully covered with many varieties of tropical shrubs and flowers. Met Mr. John Lee going home with Mr. Byles the hunter, and Mr. White, at our first outspan. Passed several pretty trees (of the cactus family) and the siequarre trees, which bear long leaves, and at this season of the year dead flowers. Wild cotton grows in this region, and a plant called obendly, another kind of cotton-plant. The natives work up the cotton into long strings, fasten many together, and use it for tinder, or for sale to traders and hunters. The fibre is very tough, and if cultivated would be a valuable article of commerce; the flower is very peculiar, having green leaves; the pod is five inches in length, has three sides with a rib between, each side being one and a quarter inches wide, and green; the leaf is light-green above and white beneath, and grows along the ground. It is not found to grow south of twenty-one degrees, south latitude. I have now in my service the Zulu engaged at Makobi's (Dumaka) as forelooper; Jack, the driver; Dirk, second driver; Mack, the cook and general servant; Jacob, a Bechuana, and the two Zulu guards. _29th, Saturday_.--Travelled to-day in three short inspans, through a fine open country, thickly populated, large kraals in all directions. People very troublesome, constantly asking for presents, "Tusa," all day longitude. Weather pleasantly warm, thermometer 90 degrees, a strong east wind blowing. Bought Kaffir beer for my boys at the Amaboguana, a large Kaffir station, and outspanned for the night near the large military station Amagoquana. Bought two Kaffir sheep for three pounds of beads. The country is well adapted for grazing purposes; the sheep were in splendid condition, each tail produced from ten to fourteen pounds of fat. _30th, Sunday_.--We crossed the Carmarlo drift, and went on to one of Lo-Bengulu's country stations, Umcarno, which is situated about twelve miles on the west of Gubuluwayo, where I found the king sitting on his waggon-box in his kraal, and the Rev. Mr. Sykes and Mrs. Sykes at their waggon a short distance away. The rivers that complete the drainage of the eastern portion of the Mashona country, south of the Mopolo watershed, are the tributaries of the Sabia river. The most important are the Ingwezi, Lunde, Tokwe, and several small ones to the north. The Sabia rises in the watershed at an elevation of 4210 feet above sea-level, flows south for nearly 250 miles, then turns east, then north-east, and enters the Indian Ocean thirty miles south of Sofala. This river is supposed to be the boundary between Lo-Bengulu and the chief Umzela on the east.