Volume Ii Part 23 (1/2)

_15th October, 1872._--Rest, and kill an ox. The dry heat is distressing, and all feel it sorely. I am right glad of the rest, but keep on as constantly as I can. By giving dura and maize to the donkeys, and riding on alternate days, they hold on; but I feel the sun more than if walking. The chief Kariaria is civil.

_16th October, 1872._--Leave Mokaia and go south. We crossed several bays of Tanganyika, the path winding considerably. The people set fire to our camp as soon as we started.

_17th October, 1872._--Leave a bay of Tanganyika, and go on to Mpimbwe; two lions growled savagely as we pa.s.sed. Game is swarming here, but my men cannot shoot except to make a noise. We found many lepidosirens in a muddy pool, which a group of vultures were catching and eating. The men speared one of them, which had scales on; its tail had been bitten off by a cannibal brother: in length it was about two feet: there were curious roe-like portions near its backbone, yellow in colour; the flesh was good. We climbed up a pa.s.s at the east end of Mpimbwe mountain, and at a rounded ma.s.s of it found water.

_18th October, 1872._--Went on about south among mountains all day till we came down, by a little westing, to the Lake again, where there were some large villages, well stockaded, with a deep gully half round them.

Ill with my old complaint again. Bubwe is the chief here. Food dear, because Simba made a raid lately. The country is Kilando.

_19th October, 1872._--Remained to prepare food and rest the people. Two islets, Nkoma and Kalenge, are here, the latter in front of us.

_20th October, 1872._--We got a water-buck and a large buffalo, and remained during the forenoon to cut up the meat, and started at 2 P.M.

Went on and pa.s.sed a large arm of Tanganyika, having a bar of hills on its outer border. Country swarming with large game. Pa.s.sed two bomas, and spent the night near one of them. Course east and then south.

_21st October, 1872._--Moka.s.sa, a Moganda boy, has a swelling of the ankle, which prevents his walking. We went one hour to find wood to make a litter for him. The bomas round the villages are plastered with mud, so as to intercept b.a.l.l.s or arrows. The trees are all cut down for these stockades, and the flats are cut up with deep gullies. A great deal of cotton is cultivated, of which the people make their cloth. There is an arm of Tanganyika here called Kafungia.

I sent a doti to the headman of the village, where we made the litter, to ask for a guide to take us straight south instead of going east to Fipa, which is four days off and out of our course. Tipo Tipo is said to be at Morero, west of Tanganyika.

_22nd October, 1872._--Turned back westwards, and went through the hills down to some large islets in the Lake, and camped in villages destroyed by Simba. A great deal of cotton is cultivated here, about thirty feet above the Lake.

_23rd October, 1872._--First east, and then pa.s.sed two deep bays, at one of which we put up, as they had food to sell. The sides of the Tanganyika Lake are a succession of rounded bays, answering to the valleys which trend down to the sh.o.r.e between the numerous ranges of hills. In Lake Nya.s.sa they seem made by the prevailing winds. We only get about one hour and a half south and by east. Rain probably fell last night, for the opposite sh.o.r.e is visible to-day. The mountain range of Banda slopes down as it goes south. This is the district of Motos.h.i.+.

Wherever buffaloes are to be caught, falling traps are suspended over the path in the trees near the water.

_24th October, 1872._--There are many rounded bays in mountainous Fipa.

We rested two hours in a deep shady dell, and then came along a very slippery mountain-side to a village in a stockade. It is very hot to-day, and the first thunderstorm away in the east. The name of this village is Linde.

_25th October, 1872._--The coast runs south-south-east to a cape. We went up south-east, then over a high steep hill to turn to south again, then down into a valley of Tanganyika, over another stony side, and down to a dell with a village in it. The west coast is very plain to-day; rain must have fallen there.

_26th October, 1872._--Over hills and mountains again, past two deep bays, and on to a large bay with a prominent islet on the south side of it, called Kitanda, from the chiefs name. There is also a rivulet of fine water of the same name here.

_27th October, 1872._--Remained to buy food, which is very dear. We slaughtered a tired cow to exchange for provisions.

_28th October, 1872._--Left Kitanda, and came round the cape, going south. The cape furthest north bore north-north-west. We came to three villages and some large spreading trees, where we were invited by the headman to remain, as the next stage along the sh.o.r.e is long. Morilo islet is on the other or western side, at the crossing-place. The people brought in a leopard in great triumph. Its mouth and all its claws were bound with gra.s.s and bands of bark, as if to make it quite safe, and its tail was curled round: drumming and lullilooing in plenty.

The chief Mosirwa, or Kasamane, paid us a visit, and is preparing a present of food. One of his men was bitten by the leopard in the arm before he killed it. Molilo or Morilo islet is the crossing-place of Banyamwezi when bound for Casembe's country, and is near to the Lof.u.ko River, on the western sh.o.r.e of the Lake. The Lake is about twelve or fifteen miles broad, at lat.i.tude 7 52' south. Tipo Tipo is ruling in Itawa, and bound a chief in chains, but loosed him on being requested to do so by Syde bin Ali. It takes about three hours to cross at Morilo.

_29th October, 1872._--Crossed the Thembwa Rivulet, twenty feet broad and knee deep, and sleep on its eastern bank. Fine cold water over stony bottom. The mountains now close in on Tanganyika, so there is no path but one, over which luggage cannot be carried. The stage after this is six hours up hill before we come to water. This forced me to stop after only a short crooked march of two and a quarter hours. We are now on the confines of Fipa. The next march takes us into Burungu.

_30th October, 1872._--The highest parts of the mountains are from 500 feet to 700 feet higher than the pa.s.ses, say from 1300 feet to 1500 feet above the Lake. A very rough march to-day; one cow fell, and was disabled. The stones are collected in little heaps and rows, which shows that all these rough mountains were cultivated. We arrive at a village on the Lake sh.o.r.e. Kirila islet is about a quarter of a mile from the sh.o.r.e. The Megunda people cultivated these hills in former times. Thunder all the morning, and a few drops of rain fell. It will ease the men's feet when it does fall. They call out earnestly for it, ”Come, come with hail!” and prepare their huts for it.

_31st October, 1872._--Through a long pa.s.s after we had climbed over Winelao. Came to an islet one and a half mile long, called Kapessa, and then into a long pa.s.s. The population of Megunda must have been prodigious, for all the stones have been cleared, and every available inch of soil cultivated.

The population are said to have been all swept away by the Matuta.

Going south we came to a very large arm of the Lake, with a village at the end of it in a stockade. This arm is seven or eight miles long and about two broad. We killed a cow to-day, and found peculiar flat worms in the substance of the liver, and some that were rounded.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] Without entering into the merits of a disputed point as to whether the men on their return journey would have been brought to a standstill at Unyanyembe but for the opportune presence of Lieutenant Cameron and his party, it will be seen nevertheless that this entry fully bears out the a.s.sertion of the men that they had cloth laid by in store here for the journey to the coast.