XXI.] TRADERS ON LAKE SANKORRA. 279 



lashed Lis wrist firmly to an upright post during the opera- September, 

 tion. '^ 1874. 



ISTot content with making me gunsmith and surgeon, they 

 begged me to try my hand at the manufacture of soap from 

 palm-oil, having heard that the English used it for that jjurpose. 

 Not being sanguine as to the result, I did not care to make the 

 attempt ; but they pressed it so upon me that I consented, and 

 after much trouble succeeded in manufacturing a sort of soft 

 soap — which would wash clothes — of palm-oil and lye made 

 from ashes of the stalks of Indian corn. 



Two days after Kasongo's visit, I returned his call, and found 

 him sitting on an open grassy space in the middle of his village, 

 which was composed of good-sized, comfortable huts. He was 

 dressed only in native grass-cloth, but looked far cleaner and 

 more respectable than wdien tricked out in his tawdry finery. 

 Some people then with him had just returned from Lake San- 

 korra, and said that traders had been there very recently ; and, 

 to prove the truth of their statements, showed me new cloth 

 and beads they had bought there, quite different in kind and 

 quality from any coming from Zanzibar. ' Another proof, and 

 an unwelcome one, was that the cowi'ies I had purchased at Ny- 

 angwe had fallen from the abnormal price they obtained there 

 to considerably below par, when compared with beads. This 

 was owing to the large quantities brought into the country by 

 traders to the lake, who w^ere described to me as wearing hats 

 and trousers, and having boats with, two trees (masts) in them. 



All my hopes of an easy journey to this mysterious lake were 

 dashed to the ground on re(geiving the answer from the chief 

 whose territory I desired to cross. "No strangers wdtli guns 

 had," he said, " ever passed through his country, and none 

 should, without fighting their way." 



Although I could have obtained suflftcient men from Nyangwe 

 and Tipo-tipo to have easily fought my way through, I recog- 

 nized it as my duty not to risk a single life unnecessarily ; for 

 I felt that the merit of any geographical discovery would be 

 irretrievabl}^ marred by shedding a drop of native blood except 

 in self-defense. 



My direct road to the lake being thus closed, I inquired if it 

 were possible to get there by some circuitous route. 



