1869.] A DEN OF MURDERERS. 11 



people on the road to Nyassa, they have refused to cany 

 my correspondence. 



This is a den of the worst kind of slave-traders ; those 

 ■whom I met in Urungu and Itawa were gentlemen slavers : 

 the Ujiji slavers, like the Kilwa and Portuguese, are the 

 vilest of the vile. It is not a trade, but a system of con- 

 secutive murders; they go to plunder and kidnap, and 

 every trading trip is nothing but a foray. Moene Mokaia, 

 the headman of this place, sent canoes through to Nzige,. 

 and his people, feeling their prowess among men ignorant 

 of guns, made a regular assault but were repulsed, and the 

 whole, twenty in number, were killed. Moene Mokaia is- 

 now negotiating with Syde bin Habib to go and revenge 

 this, for so much ivory, and all he can get besides. Syde,, 

 by trying to revenge the death of Salem bin Habib, his 

 brother, on the Bakatala, has blocked up one part of the 

 country against me, and will probably block Nzige, for 

 I cannot get a message sent to Chowambe by anyone, 

 and may have to go to Karagwe on foot, and then from 

 Kumanyika down to this water. 



[In reference to the above we may add that there is a 

 vocabulary of Masai words at the end of a memorandum- 

 book. Livingstone compiled this with the idea that it 

 woidd prove useful on his way towards the coast, should 

 he eventually pass through the Masai country. No doubt 

 some of the Arabs or their slaves knew the language, and 

 assisted him at his work.] 



29th Maij. — Many people went off to Unyembe, and their 

 houses were untenanted ; I wished one, as I was in a lean- 

 to of Zahor's, but the two headmen tried to secure the 

 rent for themselves, and were defeated by Mohamad bin 

 Saleh. I took my packet of letters to Thani, and gave two 

 cloths and four bunches of beads to the man who was to 

 take them to Unyanyembe; an hour afterwards, letters,. 



