542 ABOUT THE LAKE. 



" The first village we came to on the banks of the lake had 

 a grove of palm-oil and other trees around it. This palm tree 

 was not the dwarf species seen on Lake Nyassa. A cluster of 

 the fruit passed the door of my hut which required two men to 

 carry it. The fruit seemed quite as large as those on the west 

 coast. Most of the natives live on two islands, where they 

 cultivate the soil, rear goats, and catch fish. The lake is not 

 large — from fifteen to twenty miles broad, and from thirty to 

 forty long. It is the receptacle of four considerable streams, 

 and sends out an arm two miles broad to the N.N.W., it is said 

 to Tanganyika, and it may be a branch of that lake. One of 

 the streams, the Lonzua, drives a smooth body of water into 

 the lake fifty yards broad and ten fathoms deep, bearing on its 

 surface duck-weed and grassy islands. I could see the mouths 

 of other streams, but got near enough to measure the Lofu only • 

 and at a ford fifty miles from the confluence it was one hundred 

 yards wide and waist-deep in the dry season. 



" We remained six weeks on the shores of the lake, trying to 

 pick up some flesh and strength. A party of Arabs came into 

 Ulungu after us in search of ivory, and hearing that an Eng- 

 lishman had preceded them, naturally inquired where I was. 

 But our friends, the Baulungu, suspecting that mischief was 

 meant, stoutly denied that they had ever seen anything of the 

 sort ; and then became very urgent that I should go on to one 

 of the inhabited islands for safety. I regret that I suspected 

 them of intending to make me a prisoner there, which they 

 could easily have done by removing the canoes ; but when the 

 villagers who deceived the Arabs told me afterwards with an 

 air of triumph how nicely they had managed, I saw that they 

 had only been anxious for my safety. On three occasions the 

 same friendly disposition was shown ; and when we went round 

 the west side of the lake in order to examine the arm or branch 

 above referred to, the head man at the confluence of the Lofu 

 protested so strongly against my going — the Arabs had been 

 fighting, and I might be mistaken for an Arab, and killed — 

 that I felt half-inclined to believe him. 



" Two Arab slaves entered the village the same afternoon in 

 search of ivory, and confirmed all he had said. We now altered 

 our course, intending to go south about the district disturbed 



