92 In the Heart of Africa 



canoes are really excellent for calm weather travelling, though 

 they are inadequate for coping with the storms not infrequently 

 encountered on Lake Kiwu. 



We met with our first unhappy experience in this direction 

 upon the occasion of our journey from Ischangi to Kissenji, 

 which we undertook in a flotilla of ten boats in company with 

 Captain von Grawert. The first day passed away most agreeably 

 in the finest of weather. On the second, however, we were 

 surprised by foul weather as we were crossing the open water 

 (about twenty kilometres in breadth) between Kwidschwi and 

 an island lying to the eastward of it. A violent breeze swept 

 across the lake and swirled up waves which foamed and splashed 

 high above the two-foot gunwales of the largest boats, in the 

 bows of which we Europeans were sitting. Through the laziness 

 of certain of the oarsmen the boats of the flotilla had drawn 

 a good deal apart from each other during the course of the 

 day. Thanks to our constant urging of our crew, we Europeans 

 reached the safe shelter of the island without any greater in- 

 convenience than a thorough drenching. By degrees the other 

 boats, more or less filled with water, arrived, with the exception 

 of two, which, being the last of the procession, met with the 

 full violence of the storm. These, unfortunately, while yet some 

 distance from the island, fell victims to the waves without our 

 being able to render any assistance. Mildbraed's " boy " Max, 

 or " Maxi," as the Wasuaheli called him, a typical coast boy, 

 was seated in one of these boats. As a European's " boy " and 

 " Daressalamer " he always laid down the law and deemed himself 

 far superior to the carriers and ** washensi " (negroes of the 

 interior). In this accident on the lake his shrewdness stood him 

 in good stead. Recognising the gravity of the situation he 

 speedily made up his mind and leapt into the water just at 

 the moment when a rather bigger boat at the rear passed the 

 one he was in, which was already half-filled with water. A 

 few strokes of the oars made it possible for him to clamber on 

 to the gunwale of the other boat. In this boat sat Amdallah 

 Mjamwesi, an Askari, who, strange to say, exhibited lion-like 



