I860.] ENDEAVOURS TO CROSS LAKE NYASSA. 01 



and pleasant to bathe in the delicious waters again, hear 

 the roar of the sea, and dash in the rollers. Temp. 71° at 

 8 a.m., while the air was 65°. I feel quite exhilarated. 



The headman here, Mokalaose, is a real Manganja, and 

 he and all his people exhibit the greater darkness of colour 

 consequent on being in a warm moist climate ; he is very- 

 friendly, and presented millet, porridge, cassava, and hippo- 

 potamus meat boiled and asked if I liked milk, as he had 

 some of Mataka's cattle here. His people bring sanjika the 

 best Lake fish, for sale ; they are dried on stages over slow 

 fires, and lose their fine flavour by it, but they are much 

 prized inland. I bought fifty for a fathom of calico ; when 

 fresh, they taste exactly like the best herrings, *. e. as we 

 think, but voyagers' and travellers' appetites are often so 

 whetted as to be incapable of giving a true verdict in 

 matters of taste. 



[It is necessary to explain that Livingstone knew of an 

 Arab settlement on the western shore of the Lake, and that 

 he hoped to induce the chief man Jumbe to give him a 

 passage to the other side.] 



10th August. — I sent Seyed Majid's letter up to Jumbe, 

 but the messenger met some coast Arabs at the Loangwa, 

 which may be seven miles from this, and they came back 

 with him, haggling a deal about the fare, and then went 

 off, saying that they would bring the dhow here for us. 

 Finding that they did not come, I sent Musa, who brought 

 back word that they had taken the dhow away over to 

 Jumbe at Kotakota, or, as they pronounce it, Ngotagota. 

 Very few of the coast Arabs can read ; in words they are 

 very polite, but truthfulness seems very little regarded. I 

 am resting myself and people — working up journal, lunars, 

 and altitudes — but will either move south or go to the 

 Arabs towards the north soon. 



