After great difficulty we found a fairly good place for a camp, with plantations belonging to Goimuyasso all-round us, and commanding the river for about a mile above and below our position. Goimuyasso, a great greasy chief, brought us a quantity of flour and goats, but gave us little or no information, either from the usual African apathy, or else incredulous that the Arabs were within four hours' march of us, and that at any hour of the day or night he might have to run for his life. Possibly, the most likely solution of his incommunicativeness was that he had then not decided whether he would join us or the Arabs.

The following day our spies reported that Sefu had ordered Gongo Muchufa and Nyar Gongo — two chiefs on opposite sides of the river, five or six hours' march to the northward — to hold their