58 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



ence ; but the only danger would consist in the cir- 

 cumstance of the two sultans being at enmity with 

 each other, as in this land anyone coming direct from 

 an enemy's country is suspected and treated as an 

 enemy. This difficulty I should have avoided by 

 going straight to Sukuma (where the boats, I am in- 

 clined to think, usually do start from, though all 

 concur in stating that this is their point.of departure), 

 and there obtaining boats direct. However, I told 

 them that I should have gone if I had found boats 

 ready at once to take me across ; but now I saw the 

 probability of so much delay, that I coidd not afford 

 to waste time in trying to obtain boats, which, had I 

 succeeded in getting, I should have employed my 

 time not in going to Ukerewe, but to the more ele- 

 vated and friendly island of Mzita, this being a more 

 suitable observatory than the former. These negroes' 

 manoeuvres are quite incomprehensible. If Mahay* 

 had desired to fleece me and one can hardly give a 

 despotic nigger credit for anything short of that he 

 surely would have tried to detain me under false 

 hopes, and have thus necessitated my spending cloths 

 in his village ; while, on the contrary, he lost all chance 

 of gaining anything by giving advice, which induced me 

 to leave him at once, never to return again to see him. 

 At my request, Mahaya assembled all his principal 

 men, and we went into a discussion about the lake, 

 but not a soul knew anything about its northern ex- 

 tremity, although people had sometimes travelled in 



