1873.] STILL IN THE SWAMPS. 320 



chief's town (it was his that they occupied); for the bad 

 son had brought all this upon them ; he added that the old 

 man had been overruled, and they were sorry enough for his 

 bad conduct. 



Listening to the account given of this occurrence, 

 one cannot but lament the loss of life and the whole 

 circumstances of the fight. Whilst on the one hand we 

 may imagine that the loss of a cool, conciliatory, brave 

 leader was here felt in a grave degree, we must also see that 

 it was known far and wide that this very loss was now a 

 great weakness to his followers. There is no surer sign of 

 mischief in Africa than these trumpery charges of bewitch- 

 ing houses by placing things on them : some such over- 

 strained accusation is generally set in the front rank when 

 other difficulties are to come : drunkenness is pretty much 

 the same thing in all parts of the world, and gathers misery 

 around it as easily in an African village as in an English 

 city. Had the cortege submitted to extortion and insult, 

 they felt that their night by the river would have been 

 a precarious one — even if they had been in a humour to 

 sleep in a swamp when a town was at hand. These things 

 gave occasion to them to resort to force. The desperate 

 nature of their whole enterprise in starting for Zanzibar 

 perhaps had accumulated its own stock of determination, 

 and now it found vent under evil provocation. If there is 

 room for any other feeling than regret, it lies in the fact 

 that, on mature consideration and in sober moments, the 

 people who suffered, cast the real blame on the right 

 shoulders. 



For the next three days after leaving Chawende's they 

 were still in the same inundated fringe of Bouga, which 

 surrounds the Lake, and on each occasion had to camp 

 at nightfall wherever a resting-place could be found in 

 the jungle, reaching Chama's village on the fourth day. 

 A delay of forty-eight hours was necessary, as Susi's wife 



