ARRIVAL AT NYOMANO. 433 



One of the plagues to which the country had been subject was 

 an invasion of the Mazitu, whose plundering propensities con- 

 stitute one of the most serious evils in all the lake region ; 

 another was a very distressing drought. As he advanced the 

 embarrassment became greater. The Mazitu had swept the 

 land like a cloud of locusts. They had inspired the whole popu- 

 lation with terror. It was almost impossible to get his carriers 

 along, and as the south side of the river promised better fare he 

 at length consented to their entreaties, and they passed over and 

 journeyed on to the Loendi just above its confluence with the 

 Rovurna, and though it retained the name Loendi, it was mani- 

 festly the parent stream. Both rivers were rapid, shoal and 

 sandy, with light canoes gliding about on them, in whose dex- 

 terous management the natives take great pride. 



Xyomano was at last reached. It occupied the very impor- 

 tant situation just at the confluence of the two rivers. Matu- 

 mova, the head man, received Livingstone with great cordiality 

 and respect; he had himself crossed the Loendi and superin- 

 tended the transportation of the party, and though he had been 

 sadly impoverished, and his people reduced to absolute want, 

 he generously divided his small store with Dr. Livingstone as 

 long as he remained at his village. The guide, Ben Ali, was dis- 

 charged, and the country around scoured by the men in search 

 of food. Meantime, also, word was sent back to the Sepoys, 

 but his efforts to make something of them were more honorable 

 to himself than effectual. The time passed heavily ; very short 

 marches. The journal of his travels for days contains very 

 little besides the annoyances experienced with his trifling escort : 

 they had so abused the camels that they were most of them 

 dead, and none of them any longer fit for service, while they 

 themselves could scarcely be trusted to carry anything of value. 

 In the Matembwe country he was in the favorite fields of the 

 Arab slave-traders. Everywhere the huts were seen which 

 these traders had built to screen themselves from the sun. Many 

 of the people were found supplied with guns, and the ground 

 was strewn with slave-taming sticks, which gave sorrowful evi- 

 dence of the multitudes of poor creatures who had fallen down 

 under the* cruelties of their masters while on the march to the 

 market at the coast. Livingstone was now indeed penetrating 



