^«%^ T» %%<'. 1 '^^ -.^5 5 "'^ is\^J \ i^^lP^WS »/ (X /C^ SS" f A WALK TO THi NYASSA COUNTRY. OUR EXPEDITION left Zanzibar at the end of August, and one of the Union Company's mail steamers landed a3 the next moruiiig but one at Lindi, a place which I bad long since selected as being the nearest point to the Lake Nyassa, and at the same time po3.^33sing one of the best and certainly the most accessible harbour on that part of the coast, with high land all around. We knew also on good auth">rity that porters and guides were to be had there. We had the most diverse estimates of the time likely to be triken up by the journey, varying from ten days to six months. I had hoped to have started a month earlier, but was hindered by other business. The rains are over in May, but for several months the 2 lower grounds are full of water and the dry* iug up time is the unhealthiest of all seasons^ I was accompanied by the Rev. C. A. Jamea^ Mr. A Bellville aud Mr. Beardall^ (the party whom I hoped to place in a permanent station- at Mataka's town or elsewhere near the Lake)) with about twenty Zanzibar porters under Chuma and Susi, Livingstone's men. I had already had some reason to fear as to the health of the party, Mr. James and Mr. Beardall both seeming to be oversoon. affected by the coast climate, and Mr. Bell- ville's health had been shattered on the Shire,. while a member of Faulkner's disastrous ex- pedition. I soon fouiid that the coast men were putting hindrances in our way, not at all openly, bat by way of delays and promises deferred. Fearing the effect? ofinaction on my companions, I sent them on two little explor- ing journeys, Mr. James to see a little of the Mweras and their country, and Mr. Bellville to look for a navigable river said to fall into the sea between Kilwa and Lindi. On Mr Bellvllle's return I sent him to Kilwa first, end thence on to Zanzibar, with Snsi as inter- preter, to hire porters, the Lindi men being Blow to come forward and standing out for extravagant rates of payment. 5 '1 he ants are the true kings of the foreat. Tlie coast men have a legend that when King Solomon reigned, and all the beasts acknow- ledged his authority, the ants came to com- plain that the elephants trod npon them and killed them by hundreds. The elephants made light of h, and said that, as they were the strongest of all beusts, the ants should get out of their way. The ants denied their strength and offered to fight them. The by- standers laughed, but king Solomon appoint- ed place and time, so th.:; elephants sent tenor twelve of their biggest, and the ants came in myriads. At the first onset the ants were crushed by thousands, but almost immedi- ately the foremost elephants, knocking over every thing in their way, rushed to the near- est water, for their trunks and ears, and eyes, and lips, and every part tender enough for an ant to nip was full of them, cutting theii way in deeper aud deeper. The other elephants thereupon said that it was beneath their dig- nity to fight with creatures so insignificant, but Solomon gave it for the ants, and from that day forward, let lions and elephants boast as they may, they tread carefully wheu they see ants before them, and no one sioco has ever ventured to offer to £ght them. We had ourselves experience of tlioir power, and on one occasion nearly set our encampment on fire in trying to turn their coui-se by strew- ing live embers about, fire being the only thing they fear. The approach to the K'^vuma is marked by the sudden rising of great mountainous masses of granite rock, often of grotesque shapes, and seemingly strewed about b}- ac- cident. The country we had passed bad not always been so bare of people ; it forms part of the great waste made by the raids of the Mavitis and Gwangwaras. We found the first village we came to inhabited by Gindo fugitives from near Kilwa , who being timid folk are terribly bullied by an otherwise in- significant Yao chief, named Golilo. Tliey begged us to make him a present, • lest he should revenge our not doing so on tliem. As we passed on, we heard that a Coast car- avan had kidnapped one of the villagers, the first trace of the slave trade. By the road side I saw an iron furnace, hollowed out of an ant hill. It was nob at work, but there was some ore close by prepared for smelting, of which I got specimens. The smelters are Makuas, but the Mweras are the best smiths. We had just crossed a broad dry river 7 bed, when we met what we took at fir8t for a caravan, but it turned out to be a fugitive chief and his followers fled from the other Bida of tas river. They told us that the Gwa- ng^vclras wers out on a raid before us, that some hunters in searching for game had seen tham and given the alarm, so they were flee- ing they could not tell wliither. We went on to a village of some three hundred houses, under a Makua chief. Li- vingstone had seen the same people on the other side of the Rovuma, their chief Mako- chero h?.d moved to this place. At the ti:n3 of our visit the old man had lately died and his son w.is not yet formally installed. Hero we inet another band of fugitives, who said that th3 Grwangwaras were out behind us, and Makochero's people only stayed in th.nr houses because our presence gave them confidence. They would othei'wise have taken r^f age on the top of the granite rocks by which their villa ae is skirted. As we heard here of a large Yao caravan having just crossed the Rovuma on its way down, we began to think that there had been some mistake, and perhaps there were no Gwangwa- ras after all. From Makochero's we came to the Eoruma. 8 It was then at its lowest, and at that spot without much current, the whole bed studded with rocks and sand banks and reedy islands. It was fordable in many places and no- where deep. A more unpromising stream for navigation could hardly be> for sora© distance a littlo higher up no water was visible, only a waste of rocks and the sound of water rushing along between them. We were three days more pr.ssing up the north bank, and crossed two Inrge rivers, still Sow- ing but very low, which drain respectively the forest wastes, which were once the Ginda and the Donde territories. All along the Rovuma we were gathering provisions as we could for the Yao forest on the other side. We crossed aij a place where the river was broad and still, bat covering^ its whole bed, and looking more like the great river it really is. The water was no- where more than about three feet deep, and mostly but little above the knee. The men walked straight across, and 1 v/as cleverly ferried over a little higher, where there was more current, in a very small canoe. On the other side we found a Yao village just forming itself, having fled in a body 9 from near the Lujenda (or Loendi) ^Iiere tB© Gwangwaras Lad certainly "been. The Yao3 reported that there was another war some- where before us, end we waited while they sent on to the next village for more certain information. The messergers reported the war as beirg far ofi*, so we went on, and early in the afternoon come to a village where we met with the only chief who made him- self really disagreeable. Fe was a Donde, one of those who had learnt the trade of thieving from their Maviti spoilers. He was a sort of lieutenano to a bigger man, a Gindo named ISkipingawandu, on the other side of the river. He insisted on a much larger present than the other small chiefs were contented with, and threatened to throw all sorts of obstacles in oar way if we did not stay all the next day in his village, his people too stole by whole- sale from cur porters. The next chief, as if to complete the chaos of tribes, was a Nyassa, he too would gladly have detained us, but being wecker than his neighbour iii every way, we went on to the next, a Yao village, whence we got some men to help carry our provisions, and struck off from the river for Mataka's, hoping to* find a chief named Liuli about half way.. 10 On the second day of our forest marcli we met a deformed man, wlio stood aside to let ua pass. The more superstitious of our men took him for a wood demon, and said that if it had appsared as a woman, our deaths would have been certain. Tt wis not a demon however, but a man, he told our people behind that he was fleeing for his life fi^om Liuli/s, which had just been desfcroyei bj a party of Dondes from near the Lujenda, that he had seen three men killed and the plundering begun. Here then was a serious difficulty, some advised waitiug, some returning to the Ro* vuma, and moving up its bank till near the the mountains, but the real <|uestion was, where were the Dondes going next, they would not probably stay long at Liali^s. I thought it was just as safe to go on as to go back, and besides my patience had been quite exhausted by our dsla3^s upon the Rovuma, and I was eager to get forward at any cost. Ultimately we sent three men to go onward cautiously and see whe!:her the road was clear, while we followed. The first night they returned, and reported all safe for some distance ahead. The second night they did not return. We found that II day a sign of what might be done, if the coast men really desired to benefit the peo;)le. Wo found a fine cashew nut tree in a deserted village, the only coast fruit tree we had seen. The cashew apples were just ripe, and though not the best of fruit by any means, we rushed upon them, and soon cleared the tree. A. little further on we came to some marks which seemed to show that our men had halted there, or had left the path we were following. Our Yao helpers were clear that the right road was forward, and so we went on with them to another deserted village, where they left us, and we encamped. These settlements belonged to a chief named Kang^ninda, and had been abandoned in the May preceding. They were very finely placed on broad swells of high land com- manding grand views all round, with a large river near, and little brooks running among granite rocks. Oae longed to be able to reoccupy them. The next morning we were anxious about our people, and sent men for- ward to see if they could discover any traces of them, and back to mark the roads from the Cashew nut tree onward to show which way we had gone. Both returned without tidings. Some thought our men had been 12 snrprised and killed, some tliat they hod been scared and run back. Meanwhile our provisions were running out, so we had no- thing for it but to go forward. This afternoon, still &mong ruined villnges we met a small caravan going down. They had a few small tusks of ivory, seme loads of tobacco, and about thirty slaves. They re- ported the road clear ahead, and we gave them instructions for our men, if they met with them. Next day VvO came to a fork in the road, when one of the men luckily recollected the spot and that the right hand rood was the one for Mataka's. The path seemed so over- grown and little used that I had begun to doubt about it, when we met a large caravan, or rather three straggled into cne, they had only tobacco and slaves. They told us that they were five days from Mataka's, and that the road was clear, but we should meet with no more houses. This was bad news for us who had near- ly eaten all our stock. About nine the next mornirg, word was passed to stop as a gun had been heard behind, and soon our three men rejoined us, they had miisread the marks near the cashewnut tree and thought we had gone back, they did not meet the first caravan^ 13 but slept the night before with the second, ■v\ho had given them seme food, all they had had. "V^ e cccked for them at once, and im- mediately after sent on two men with cloth to get to Ik^lotsta's as quickly as possible and bring back food. The ground W8S now losing something of its level character., end risipg first into long swells, as at Xang^ninc^a^s and afterward into sharper ridges. The trees too were very unlike those in the Mwera forests. There the average diameter may be taken as from one foot to two, with a tall trunk before branching. Here the average diameter would lun bel\Neen six inches and twelve, with far less height of trunk and spread of branches. Afiicrn trees are as a rule disappointing, there are scm.e reall}^ fine ones near the rivers and in hollows, but generally they are ill grown and their foliage scanty, beside being out of leaf for a great part of the year. The l^aobabs, which have enoimous trunks, only grew tall when suricunded by other large trees and are bare for nearly nine months of the year. The Yao forests have however one tree which we found very useful. It bears a round fruit with russet rind and three large grooved stcnee Eurroundedbyasmall quantity u of very sweet palp with something of a pear- like flavour. Tliay W3re just coming ripe and we ate them by liundreds. Tiie Yaos call them Masuku. As we went on that day, I saw a woman coming towards us, oar leading guide spoke to her and made her turn to follow him. I went up and he told m? she h^d run away from yesterday's caravan, and he purposed to take her to Mataka's. I made him leave her alone, and she went on in the other direction. Wondering how she would fare with our other man, I want back and found they had her amongst them with a load on her head already, to take her back to Ma- taka*s. I made them take off the load, and let her go as she would, whereupon she walk- ed off in the opposite direction. I wished for a city of refuge to direct her to. A little farther on we came to an encampment of the same caravan, where they had left a sick man in a hut with a bag of provisions, to follow on when he could. The men who fall sick are a source of great anxiety to the lead- ers of a caravan. We had two men who during the whole journey were scarcely for a week able to carry a full load and were oblig- ed at last to leave one of them at Mataka'a. 15 November had now run ov.t, and the rain had begun to trouble us ; we soon found one of its e:ffects when, as we were thinking of making our midday rest, we heard a roar- ing of water in front, and Chuma went on and found the ford impassctbie. He immedi- ately set to work, to make a "lie down'' {u- lalo). This is done by cuiting a tree so as to fail across the river wjth its branches hold- ing to the bottom, to keep it from being carried down by the stream. If necessary another tree is cut down to fall from the opposite side and meet it. Then in carefully built vlalos, poles are tied to walk upon, and a bamboo handrail fixed, and so a very respectable bridge is formed. Ours was on- ly a rough affair, men stood on the branches of the tree and passed the loads across, and then 1 was carried >ver, and sj everything passed over dry. We rested and went on a- gain, but were soon stopped by a thunder- storm. We thought this river was the Luatize, which Chuma remembered crossing with Dr. Li\nngstone, but the next day we came to a still larger river, which turned out to be the true Luatize, the first is called Lukwisi by the coast men, and Sawizi by the Yaos. Our 16 road lay for some time along the left bank of the noisy river, and at our rest, as we had shaken the last grains out of oiir bags the day before, I had nothing to give the men but a big brew of cofcee, which they declared to be vastly refreshing. We passed this morning several cairns on which it was customary foi- passers by to throw each his stone,. A little further on we pass- ed a newly made Arab grave, and all along were remains of old encampments, ominous signs of having had to wait there till the river fell sufficiently to be foidable. Soon after midday hovv^ever we met a caravan, the fore- most men carrying some very fine ivory, se- veral of the tiisks being borne between two. Then came tobacco and slaves, and some of the leaders were recognized as Mataka's men. They told us that the caravan belonged to Mataka him&lf, that our men had slept in their camp very near the villages the night before, and that it was possible we might reach their encampment that night, and find our men there on their way back. When we got to the ford we found it a scene of the wildest confusion. A place has been chosen where the stream is cut up by six QX seven islets with narrow channels between^ 17 the water in seme of these was nearly up to the armpits, and ran so strongly that, except for trees laid across to hold on by, it would have been impossible to cross. Over and through these they were brirgirg some two hundred slaves many of them women and children, and very many with forked sticks fastened to their necks. The noise erri tumult were be- yond description. We had to wait a while for them, and utilized the time by persuading the leaders of the caravan to sell us a bag of grain. Jnpt as we crossed, a heavy Scotch mist eame on, which changed into a drizzling rain, through which we trudged drearily in hope of reaching the encampment. The dull light and chill rain, the bare trees and the dead leaves beneath them were all as like a December a+'lernoon in England as possible. At last, wet and weary, we turned aside and encamped for the night. A regular caravan encampment is made by cutting pairs of stout stakes, six or seven feet long, with forked ends, and set- ting them up so as to form two sides of an equilateral triangle, a ridge piece is then laid in the forks which locks them together. Pair after pair are set up till a rough circle is formed according to the size of the caravan^ 18 Straight sticks are laid from tlie ridge pole on each side on the lines of the pairs of stakes, to form raf fcers, and then sticks tied horizon- tally to support the grass, with which the whole is thatched over, small holes are lefb on the inner side for the men to creep in at, and these are furnished with gras.^ doors, or rather shutters. This great circle of roof without ■walls is ganeriiUj divided by pai'ti^,ions into huts for one or two men, a bed is made by laying down two stout logs for the sides, and filling in between them with gras?> or leaves, over which the sleeping mat is l.iid. The man then lights a fire clo^^e beside him, and aUis snug for a week if^need be. Sometimes a regular bedstead is made by se^.ting four short forks to support the side pieecs, across which short stick3 are la;d and gra^s on them. Separate huts are ba.ilt within the enclosure for the leaders of the caravan, a,nd often a minature hut for the tail. Every ci.ravan ought to have a flag, inscribed and biassed by a man of learning on ^fehe coast, "which no porter is allowed to pass before on pain of a fine to the ilagbearor, and a tail, it may be of an ox or a hyaena, which wafcches over thefts and misdoings. ISTeither flag nor tail ought to rest at night among the men^ and one ca- 19 ravan which we met li.d at each enrampinent set up a little roof over a bit of the path some distance in advance, where their tail passed the night by itself. I do not know whether our men had a proper tail, there was one with us seemingly used as a fly-flap, but it was stolen at the Donde's village on the Rovuma. The circle of the encampment is generally completed all round, so as to shut out thieves and keep in runaways. Where bamboos and long gr^iss are plentiful, a very neat and use- ful camp may be built very quickly. The night aft«r crossing the Luatize "We soon got good fires and a plentiful supper, and woke the next day on a good specimen of a i\Iay morning, bright and fresh and sparkling. This begiiming of the rains is the spiii:g of the tropiciJ year, the trees are coming into fi-ezh le:5f, flowers are everywhere shewing themselves. Amorg the brightest at this time were the gladiolus, scarlet, white lilac, puce, lemcn and orange. No one in Yao land need fear to want flowers about Christ- mas. It was past midday when we came to the Yao encampment, and soon after met our men returning. V/e were then close to Mataka's villages, and slept in one of them on the night of the eighth of December, 20 having made twenty seven full days of travel- ling, the remaining eleven being days and half days of rest and provision seeking. The ap- proach to Mataka's country on this side is well marked by a mountain called Saniuga, which shows from a distance a flat summit and a pointed one joined by a kind of saddle. We rounded a great mass of granite rising some five hundred feet nearly perpendicularly, and were immediately in cultivated land. The men proposed to rest the next day, but I was anxious to see the chief himself, so I compromised by paying native bearers to carry their loads. We stopped at midday at a village on the brow of a hill, where lived Nyenje (or on the coasfc, Mohammed bin Matumbula) sister's son to Mataka, and there- fore by Yao customs of inheritance his next heir. He gave us a goat, and we revelled in abundance. The view from Nyenje's house is very fine, it looks down a broad valley, from five to ten miles wide, fringed by fantastic craggy hills and studded with villages and towns, several of them with three or four thousand inhabi- tants. All these are Mataka's subjects. I talked to Nyenje, who speaks Swahili well, about our objects, but he was evidently un- valley is as "bare as any part of Erglacd and the great tiills round are largely cleared. Every thing here is planted in ridges, which ena- bles the people to bury the grass and rubbish as a sort cf manure, and prevents the plants from being stunted by the baking of the dry sef^son, during which the clayey soil becomes diT f.nd hard as a stone. We were not destined however to make a dignified entrance into Mwembe, for a driz- zling rain came en, and as we had to cross several spurs of the main ridge, with steep descents and ascents, ending by the ascent into the town itsejf, the rain made the clay path so slippery, that we slid and stf ggered on as we best could in sad disorder. How- ever we blazed away a good deal of powder, and the iovn turned cut in force to Icok at ns.. It was a new thing to me to see a genuine town crowd in Africa. Livingstone reckon- ed about a thousand houses in Mwembe and it has not since diminished. I could not count the houses myself, but I think there were probably quite as many as Livingstone saw. The people have made a curious com- promise with their old cufcitcm of moving away from the place where anyone dies. They build a new house close to the old cne^ and. 24 ridge up the clay and rubbish of the old walls into a amall plantation of Indian or Kafir corn. Every spare plot is planted so that after the rains the town must look like a sea of green, with house roofs :aoating upon it. A steep road led us through the thick est part of the town to where a very large high roof, surmounted by aridge board, vith a head at one end, a tail at the other aad somejliing like a man astride near the adil, mark?! Mi- taka's own dwelling. There is a large yard surrounded by trees in front of it, and in the broad space under the ei^ves, a sort of earthen throne, three steps high, on one side of the door for the chief himself, and a lower bench on the other for his visitors. There I was placed and the yard soon filled with townsfolk. Mataka came out directly, and sab dowa on his throne, he understood my Swahili, but would not talk it, preferring to use Cham a, himself a ?ao, as an interpreter. He made me very welcome as the second V7hite man ha had seen and asked me to turn up my sleeve »nd let them see my arm, as hands and face had got burnt Arab colour. He offered us the choice of two houses and tlie men went to get one ready. I sat to be looked at and talked over tiU they returaed and condncted 25 me, not without firing of gnne, to the houne which tlicy 1i:k1 chosen. Thitlior tlio town followed and Wataka sent ns presents of food and Pomhe, or Ukana, the native beer, per- haps barley water slightly fermented would best represent it to an English mind. 1 like it in moderation, and Chuma made me with it and some flour I had brought capital little lonve:>, Vvhich were very acceptable as a relief from the endless rice and fowls, which are the staj.le food, and the weariness, of every European in tropical Africa. One man actual- ly asked me whether we had any fowls in Eng- land, for he had observed that all l\ngli.*h- men ate so many of them when in Africa, As though we any of us wo^ild if we could get anything else ! However at Mwembe we were in a land of plenty, we bought a large goat, and an Arab settled in the town gave us another, and Mataka gave us an ox, and we feasted on an abundance of peas, which grow here, but not nearer to the coast, so that, if the truth be told, we all rather overate ourselves and suffered for it. The day after our arrival we made up a present for Mataka, and sent him my letters from Zanzibar from the Regent and English Consul General. He seemed very well sat- 26 isfied, and said we might go anywhere we pleased, and mnke omvelves at liome in his country. He w:i3 anxious we should not then go on to the Lake, as in so doing we should probably make friend 5 with his enemy Makanjila. At fir.st he oifered us a place in the town, bat 'afterwards got frightened and preferred we Bhoald settle nearer the Lake at Losewa. He gets much of his wealth from what he knew we should hate and speak against,, the sale of slaves, though Mponda at the outlet of the Shire, and jMakanjila are the chief slave sellers. As Mataka repre- sented it, he sold criminals, but of course he sells Makanjila's people when he can get them, and his own born slaves, and a very small offence suiiices if the chief is m want of money. There will be advantages in settling at Lo- sewa, as we shall be masters of the situa- tion there, able to communicate easily with the Scotch settlement, and free from the crowd of importunate beggars, smaller chiefs and the men and women of Mataka's house- hold, vfho fairly beseiged us at Mwembe. Still we must look forward to a house and a school at the head quarters of the tribe, and there is uo doubt about this being the larg^ 27 est of all tlie Yao settlements. The people are in a critical state. They feel that they are backward; ond as yet. have no pattern to moidd themselves by except the coast Arab, and a wretched, model it is that he furnishes. As I felt it of the first importance to concili- ate Mataka, and was beside then not withoi;it hopes that Mr. James and his party might yet arrive, I thoue'ht it best to deny mj^self an actual ^^ight of the l^ke, and sorting cvei* what remahied of ovir goods, I made up three bales of various cloths, four bundles of beads and two boxes, which I deposited with Ma- taka to be given to Mr. James if he arrived, or if not, to await my return, which I hoped would be before the end of this present year* I hope that England will not leave me with- out the means of redeeming my pledge. I stayed in Mataka's country about a fort- night, when the continual rains and the me- mory of the rivers behind us made me think it was high time to return. I had explained our plans and wishes as widely as possible, and spoken as I could about our great work, some evidently believed not a word of what 1 said, some heard with more or less of inter- est, all promised me a welcome if I returned. I found that I could make myself understood 28 very frequently in Yao, and that thougli full of deficiencies the collections for a Hand- book of the l.mgiiage printed for us by the Christian Knowledge Society was as a whole very correct and useful. Mataka^s woaiea guessed all the enigmas at the end, and brought their companions again and again to hear them. I hope to supply the new Mission with at least a spelling book by the time it is able to begin ita work. It seems to me morally certain that the Yaos will be Christ- ians, or Mohammedans before very long, and I think the question will turn a good deal upon which is the first to write and read their language. The Mohammedans have the ad- vantage now, and we must work hard to win it from them. Makanjila has already adopted Mohammedanism and coast usages, the enmity of Mataka with him makes his people more open to Christian teaching. The old man himself abhors Mohammedanism. I hoped to have gone down to the coast very light and very quickly, but our men, finding that I had few burdens for them, bought such a quantity of tobacco for them- selves, that they were more heavily loaded than before. The Yaos use their tobacco aimoat exclusively in the form of snuff, but 29 Yao tobacco is specially valued in Zanzibar for clier.ir.g', end ccn:Dj£.nds a higlier price there than r.ny other sort. There seems to be DO legtimate commerce now betT^een the Yaos and the coast except in tobacco and bhang, and a very little ivory, the elephants beiizg nearly all killed off. Caravans are how- ever sent acrrss the lake by Mataka and the other chiefs to buy ivory, v/hich is afterwards sent down to Kilwa, or indirectly through the Al'rikras, to Ibv-^. This want of other trade is of cource the chief reason why the Yao chiefs cling £0 nrnily to their clave traffic, the open- ing of seme new commerce worJd be the sur- est way cf destroying the trade in men. ^Ve made our final start from Mataka^s villages on December 22, taking with us a- bundant provisions, and some Yaos who were skilled in making bark canoes, in case we found the rivers unfcrdable. In going up we had met few caravans, partly because they avoided us when possible, end I think cur guide avoided them. One caravan near Ma- kochero^s made a night march to pass us un- seen and two slaves escaped from them that night, when they got down to Kilwa they spread a report that we had been dispersed by the Gwangwaras and many of us killedj, 30 and they were believed till Mataka's caravan arrived, and rep'^rtsi m3otin':^u^ r.fc the Lua- tiz9. Now v/Q wero in. the uii'-^='"< of a rash, of caravans both up and do^/n, trying like ourselves to e3o;ip3- fcho .ron;}; of the t-aini. We were vary forfcn:iato in finding both the great riverj bridged bj previons caravans, indeed we met one in the acb of crossing the second. We made a slightly quicker march down through the Yao fore^ t thnn we had made going up, and met about halfway a car- avan which h;id left the coast a few days af- ter us, bringing up letters for me from the chief man at Lindi and from the Governor of Kilwa, with recommendations from this last addressed to both Mataka and Makenjila. Another day we met an oldish woman, with a slave stick still on her neck, carrying a bag of cassp^va root, on her way to Mataka's, having escaped from a caravan v/hich had just turned out of our road to buy provisions, to which she had been sold by Makanjila. One of our men cut off the slave stick, and we gave her the best advice we could to avoid the caravans behind us. We also met the eick man we had seen in the hut as we went Tip, he said he had found that his ciravan liaid got on so far, that he had better go back 31 -£han try to follow it. We (offered liim some food but he said he did not want it. We got to the Ruvuma on the Ist of Jan- uary after a short morning's march, and found it much risen. We had to go down much further on the right bank to avoid the two rivers on the other side, which were now im- passable. We walked straight tiw>ough the Donde man's village, who onlyiremonstrated faintly at his friend's not stopping to see him, but he saw we had neither slaves, nor ivory, and was beside busy in fleecing a large coast caravan, so that it was not worth his while to do more. We found some new villages es- tablished by fugitives from the Lujenda, and the only grain to be bought in the country was what they were fetching from their old half plundered, half undiscovered score-;. We had had as yet little hindrance though much annoyance from the rain, in parti- cular we saw the beginnings ot the wet sea- son in the Yao forest, in what I suppose Liv- ingstone means by his sponges. When wo went up they were long open glades in the greenness of a new growth of grass, very pleasant to look at after the endless mono- tony of scrubby trees. In the wet season Ahey gradually become unfathomable masses 82 of soft mud, ont of which they change in the dry time into expances of black eai-th baked to stony hardness by the cun. Now we found all the low land full of Rovuma water. We were told that the river was unusually high and it rose two feet v/hile we stayed on its banks for a day to buy food^ because fa- mine was rapo'bed befora us. I had thus an opportunity of seeing under a different aspect a district of high land near the river which I had thought in going up would make an admirable site for a City of Refuge, or for an intermediate station and resting place. It locked even more promis- ing now. Just by it we met a large caravan, the largest I think which we saw, it consisted of 134 people earring 5 1 bales of cloths. The number cf these is always the standard by which the importance of a caravanis measured. A few days before we had met another with 85 people and 1 7 bales, which was I think the smallest. It all we met nine, five be- longing to Yao chiefs and four to coast A- rabs, most of them having been two or three months on the way, and all exclaiming at the scarcity and dearness of provisions. We found afterwards at Makochero's, where we had bought most of our provisions in go- 33 ing up, and amongst us we had eaten some hundred fowls, that nothing was now to be had, and everything about the place looked hungry, these nine caravaas would repre- sent from 1500 to iOOO sWes, and possibly some 10,000 for the whole year. The Rovuma was crossed on January 7 at a place where the river flows in one channel, reminding one in breadth and current of the Thames at Westminster when the tide haa begun to run out strongly. I think however that it is wider and the water instead of being black was a mudiy red. We were ferried over in four small canoes which made seven journeys each. Two days more brought us to the Mwera forest, and just as we left the river we met a man who said he was six days from Lindi, which makes one believe that it is possible for a native going express to get to Mataka^s in from ten to fifteen days, as all the coast peoplo say that it is. It rained now nearly every night and a few days, and we rushed through the Mwera for- est, making two days less than in going up, chased by thunderstorms, which generally burst upon us just before sunset, by which which time we were hutted in and prepared for them. Here we saw some of the horrQi::^ 34 of the slav© trade, as we were close behind a caravan which had left in each day^s jour- ney one or more of its number cruelly mur- dered by the road side, and the very last day before reaching the villages, we came upon a man lying in the path in the very act of dying o£ hunger and fatigue. He was far beyond all help and we could only watch his last sighs* Surely if there can be a holy war it would be one against a traffic which bears such fruits as these. If we had the means to hire and feed some hundred or two of men to clear, and plant, and build, and fight if necessary, I think this line of trade at laast might be finally closed, but it would be mad- ness to attempt force unless one had ample means, and at least the passive support of the English government. The true cure must be the abolition of slavery itself on th© coast, and I think the English government could easily procure it. Let all present slaves be held indebted to their masters in a sum equal to their market value, to be paid in la- bour or in money as the two may agree, and all future comers to be ipso facto free. There would then be no great hardship on the owners, a fitting gift might be found, which would save the Sultanas honour in yielding 85 to our vrishes, and the presence of the Admi- ral for a few weeks would satisfy Lis people that he was only sr.hmitiirgto the inevitable. I herrd good news at Kilwa on my return, yhich wts that the land route northwards was stopped by war near the' Lufiji. We have got beyond he.lf measures, and no native would be sujprized at fiesh action. If we need a pretext, the fact that Pemba has noto- riously imported h.rge numbers of slaves under the eye of the Sultan's cfficials, and in direct violation of the treaty is more than a pretext, it is a Eubstartial reason. I have no pleasure in detailing horrors, but the actual sight of of such cruelties as abound on the slave routes moves one strangely. On the 16th. of January we were again among the Mweras, for whom I confess a strong liking. They have no slave trade, but drive a brisk business with the coast in Kafir corn, rice, semsem seed, tobacco and copal, to which they have just added Indian rubber, and may add bee's wax, for honey is so abun- dant that we may almost say their standard food is porridge and honey. The copal lies close to the surface in quite uncertain patches. The Mweras have a tool like a broad spud, with which they sound where they fancy 36 likely places and by use can recognize at once if they strike copal. The finder is then enti- tled to all he can stretch over, say six feet each way, beyond -which anyone else may dig. Sometimes a lucky find will fill his bag at once, but more commonly the loads taken down to the coast are many days in gathering. I offered to teach any lads that would go down with me, but some did not care to learn, and more were afraid they might never come back. However a begiuning is made and in time they will kuow and trust us. It is sad to thiuk that unless we can do something, their end must be to be swept into hopeless foreign slavery, as at any time by a Gwan- gwara raid they might be, for they have no principle of uuity, and Seyed BarghasVs po- licy makes it impossible for them do get pow- der, without which their guns are useless. We made no stay among them, for food was scarce and rain was plentiful, and one night through the obstinacy of our guide who would not stop at a village when the storm threatened, I got for the first time thorough- ly wet through. So on January 21 we walk- ed again into Lindi in very good general condition, indeed that one night^s rain was . the only serious damage we had encountered. 87 our bell tent liavirg preFcrvcd thegoodp and my waterproof sheets myself from all the previous downpours. We were thus thirty one dnys from Mataka's country, of which twenty five were full dnys of marching, 1 1 d the remciuiug six, days of resting and food buying. The road except in part of the Mwera hills needs little hut clearing to mcke it easj for a wrggon. The Prrcmeter which stood between k9 and SO at Lindi fell to 27 20 on tie rid^'e cf tie hills, rose again as we left the Mweia villrges and steed between 28 and 29 all the way to Kang'ninda's fully three fourths ot our journey, thence to Mataka's it stood between 27 and 28. In Mataka's country it was between 26 and 27. The aver- age cf observations at Mwembe gave 26'20, and on the hill above the town it fell to 26*66. There is a road to the Eovuma which is short- er and more level, but the coast men dare not pass it for fear of a Yao chief, Ma- chcmba, whom they describe as the most bloodthirsty, treacherous captain of a robber band that one can easily conceive. He cer- tainly has made the country south of Lindi harbour a tangled wilderness, and has block- ed the access for the present to the inland Makondes, a race which, lies south of the Mweras aud has occupied the coast country l^teowen Lindi and the Eovuma. During mj iavolunCary detention at Lindi I filled up some of the time by gathering a foil vocabulary and grammar of the Makonde language, which is interesting ia itself, hav- ing some forms in common with Sechuana, which are missing in the intermediate lan- guages, and it will be useful when Mache- mba^s death or pacification opens the way through their country, where there is still a large heathen population. I seemed to see clearly in the course of this journey what ought to be done by our Mission. In the first place I am anxious to redeem my pledge to Mataka, and shall be ready to lead up what volunteers will offer at any time after next June. There ought to be a City of Refuge, or at least a station as a nucleus of settled life on the Rovuma. Then the Mweras cry Ldoad to us to help them, they are a simple quiet poeple, scarce- ly touched at all by coast iuHuence. With a station amongst them and another at Kang'ninda's the road would be cut into short stages and by means of relays of don- keys might be made very easy. Men I think 30 I shall bo able to find, but tlio mr-noy for their passages and food arc not f*3 yet forth- cominuf. Thy line '> .r v::v- :ji 1; s been the scone of terrible de.strucnoii since tho timo that our Mission was first starte'l, and whole uatioua have praccically disoppeared. The Yaos are now in every sea.se the strongest in mind and body as well as in numbers. None of the tribes have a common lijai, but Mataka, Ma- kanjila and .\iponda are really great chiefs. The Mweras are even less united, every little group of huts is independent. There is a story current of a Mwera who had thir- teen daughters and determined to be a chief. So he cleared a new spot in the forest and every one who wished to marry one of his daughters he micle it a condition that he should come and live under him. Thus he soon had thirteen hu*-s besid-^ VN own, which in Mwera land is a respectable village. The Matambwes on the l>wer or middle Rovumaare almost overwh'^lmed by refu rous Gindos, Doudes, Yaos and Makuas, but their language asserts itself as the common me- dium of communication. Near the mouth of the Rovuma lie tho Makondos pressed upon by the Alakuas fi-om 40 the Soutli, with Machemba like a cancer in their midst. Old traders say that the road from Kilwa to the Nyassa used to lie entirely through an inhabited country where food of all sorts was fabulously abundant. East of Kilwa lay the Gindos and South o£ them the Mweras, East of both these the Dondes, and then on the lower Bovuma Matambwes^ and on the upper and along the Lake, Yaos. South and East of the Lake, Nyassas and East of them again the Bisas, who were ardent traders and used to send down caravan^ of their own to Kilwa. The great disturbers of this state of things were the Maviti or Mazitu, a Zulu army sent on an unsuccessful expedition, which instead of returning to be decimated went north and found a new home round the North end of the Nyassa, whence they plundered and burnt in all directions, even sending an army against Kilwa itself and for the time stoppingalltrade. They were not great slave dealers, but used to cut off the left haud of such captives as they did not kill. I saw many men thus mu- tilated. It is said that during the suspension of trade, some people, called Magwangwara, from near the Lufiji, came to Kilwa, to ask 41 why no clotli came now to them, and being told of the Maviti, promised at once to clear them out of the wnj, which they did so effec- tually, that tlie ^.laviti are uo longer dreaded. But the Gwaiigwarab, having felt their power became still worse destroyers thau the Mavi- ti had been, and all the m^re so beoau-e they found that slaves were valuable merchandise in the eyes of the Kilwa men. Their custom is to incorporate the more likely of their cap- tives into their own tribes, the rest they of- fer for sale, and if they cannot get a good price they kill them. The soattered reiunants of the Gindos and Dondes were an easy prey, and for a time the Zanzibar market was fall of Gindo slaves. The smaller Yao chiefs could offer but little resistance, and though the Gwanqrwaras have never ventured to cross a large river, or to attack a village in the mountains, they soon found they could easily cross the upper Rovuma in the dry season, and so the country to the Nurth as well as that to the South of the river lay open to them. The poor remains of the Gindos flee backward and forward as they hear of the approach of their dreaded enemies, and the few Dondes left have generally taken to the trade of thieving. 42 I liave mentioned a village on the Roviima under an exceptional instance of a fighting Gindo, Mpingawandu (stopper of people), who has under him a mixed party of broken men, his chief Lieutenant being a Doiide, and the best of his lighting men the remnant of the Maviti army, which went to attack Kihva and were afraid to return to their own chiefs. I saw in this village several men with their hair worked into a Kafir ring and with faces of the Zulu type. Mpingawandu says that he is tired of war, and wishes to live peacea- bly, which he carries into practice by squeez- ing to the utmost passing caravans, and bullying his 'more timid neighbours. The Yaos might easily if they were united, keep the Gwangwaras from crossing the Rovuma, and though some of the bolder have beaten them off, as it is said one chief, Kandulu, did this last dry season (1875), there are many smaller chiefs who can do nothing but flee. The stoppage of the Kilvva slave trade would take awr.y the motive of these Gwan- gwara raids, and the existence of a city of Kef uge under men bold enough to give them two or three crushing defeats would teach them not to treat their neighbour as cattle to be driven at their will. Badly handled, ill- 48 made flint gnus are not mucli better than own spears and shields, but a t'ew modern rifles would soon teach them a different les- son. Now however strong thieves get gun- powder as the price of slaves, and the peace- able are deprived of their only means of defence. The coast trade itself in anything like its present dimensions seems to be scarcely twen- ty yep.rs old, corresponding in fact to the growth of Zanzibar as a centre of commerce. \ et it must have been once of great extent, or Kilv7a could not have been the important city which the Portugueze found it. In the Yao language there are a few words ■VNhicli point to old commercial relations with the coast, especially the name for coast people which is merely the Arab name for Christ- ians, this seems to show that at the coming •f the Portugueze there was Arab influence enough among the Yaos to give them an A- rab name. The trade died in their hands, and only in our own days is returning to its former importance. The same conclusion may be drawn from the vague acknowledge- ment of one God by all the nations between the great lakes and the sea. This is just the remnant of Mohammedan teaching, which 4^ might be expected to survive, when that teaching was first forcibly suppressed at the fountain head by a professed Christianity, and then allowed to wither away into forget- fulness, nothing really remaining except a distaste for visible idols. It is only on the young men of the present generation that Mohammedanism is beginning to exert a powerful influence, and thi.s just in proportion as they are struggling into seme kind of ci- vilization. It is therefore much more felt by the principal Yao chiefs than by the smaller, or by the less advanced Mweras. The harvest is ripe^ where are the reapers? Edward Steeee. Missionary Bishop, Zanzibar. Lent. 1876. PBIIfTED XT THB UNITSBSITIBS' MISSION FBBSS, ZaBZIBAX.