SLAVE VALUES. 345 



along the valley until we came out at the heel of the lake — the bold moun- 

 tainous promontory of Cape Maclear on our right, and the hills of Tsenga in 

 front of us. Again starting off towards the north-west, we came to a stockade 

 which the Mazitu, or other natives pretending to be of this tribe, had attacked 

 the day before, and we saw the loathsome relics of the fight in the shape of 

 the dead bodies of the combatants. Wishing to avoid a collision with these 

 people, we turned away towards the north-east until we again came to the 

 lake, and marched along its shores to Kota-Kota Bay (lat. 12° 55' South). 



" At Kota-Kota Bay we found two Arab traders busily engaged in 

 transporting slaves across the lake by means of their boats ; they were also 

 building a dhow to supply the place of one which was said to have been 

 wrecked. These men said that they had now 1500 souls in their village, 

 and we saw tens of thousands of people in the vicinity who had fled thither 

 for protection. They were the same men whom we had seen on our last visit, 

 but at that time they had very few people. Every disturbance amongst the 

 native tribes benefits the slave-trader. They were paying one fathom of 

 calico, value one shilling, for a boy, and two fathoms for a good-looking girl. 

 Yet, profitable as it may seem, the purchase of slaves would not pay, were it 

 not for the value of their services as carriers of the ivory conveyed to the 

 coast by the merchants. A trader with twenty slaves has to expend at least 

 the price of one per day for their sustenance : it is the joint ivory and slave 

 trade which alone renders the speculation profitable. It was the knowledge 

 that I was working towards undermining the slave-trade of Mozambique and 

 Iboe by buying up the ivory, that caused the Portuguese to exert all their 

 obstructive power. I trust that operations in the interior, under a more able 

 leader, will not be lost sight of ; for these will do more to stop the slave-trade 

 than all the cruisers on the ocean. 



" Kota-Kota Bay, which is formed by a sandy spit running out and pro- 

 tecting the harbour from the east wind, is the crossing-place for nearly all the 

 slaves that go to Kilwa, Iboe, and Mozambique. A few are taken down to 

 the end of the lake, and for cheapness cross the Shire ; but at Kota-Kota lies 

 the great trade-route to Katanga, Cazembe, &c. The Babisa are the principal 

 traders ; the Manganja are the cultivators of the soil. The sight of the new 

 dhow gave me a hint which perhaps may be useful. She was 50 feet by 12, and 

 5 feet deep. I should never think again of carrying more than the engine 

 and boilers of a vessel past the cataracts ; the hull could be built here more 

 easily than it could be conveyed hither. On the southern shores of the lake 

 there are many trees whose trunks are above 2 feet in diameter and 60 feet 

 in height without a branch. The Arabs were very civil when we arrived, 

 and came forth to meet us, and presented us with rice, meal, and sugar-cane. 

 Amongst other presents they made us was a piece of malachite. 



" On leaving Kota-Kota we proceeded due west. In three days we 

 u 1 



