170 ACROSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



From this I sent forward two men to Ujiji to deliver letters 

 of introduction which had been given me by Said ibn Salim at 

 Unyanjembe ; also to request that boats might be provided at 

 the mouth of the Ruche River to convey us to Kawele, the 

 chief town of Ujiji. 



Near the camp I noticed several nutmeg-trees, and picked up 

 some very good nutmegs. The country about here was much 

 broken up, and there were many small streams and rivulets, 

 and brakes of bamboo. 



The next morning I moved to Niamtaga, in Ukaranga, a 

 good -sized palisaded village, with many skulls bleaching on 

 poles close to the entrance, and surrounded by helds neatly 

 fenced in with bamboo. The people proved an inhospitable 

 set, and would not allow us inside the village ; so we camped 

 by a large brake of bamboo, which afforded admirable material 

 for huts. 



Anxious as I was to push forward to Ujiji, now so near at 

 hand, I found it impossible to get the men on, by hook or 

 crook. Every thing I tried, even to pulling down their huts ; 

 but it was altogether useless, and Bombay and the askari were 

 quite as troublesome as the pagazi. However, on the 18th of 

 February, fifteen years and five days from the time Burton dis- 

 covered it, my eyes rested on the vast Tanganyika. 



At first I could barely realize it. Lying at the bottom of a 

 steep descent was a bright-blue patch about a mile long, then 

 some trees, and beyond them a great gray expanse, having the 

 appearance of sky with floating clouds. " That the lake ?" said 

 I in disdain, looking at the small blue patch below me. " Non- 

 sense !" " It is the lake, master," persisted my men. 



It then dawned on me that the vast gray expanse was the 

 Tanganyika, and that which I had supposed to be clouds were 

 the distant mountains of Ugoma, while the blue patch was only 

 an inlet lighted up by a })assing ray of sun. 



Hurrying down the descent and across the flat at the bottom 

 — which was covered with cane-grass and bamboo, intersected 

 by paths made by hippopotami — we reached the shore, and 

 found two large canoes, sent for us by the Arabs at Ujiji. Both 

 were (juickly filled with stores and men, and, after an hour's 

 pull, Kawele Avas reached. 



