LETTER TO LORD CLARENDON. 397 



men assert that 'when the Lufira takes up the water of Ulenge, it flows N.N.W 

 into Lake Chowarnbe, which I conjecture to be that discovered by Mr. Baker. 

 Others think that it goes into Lake Tanganyika, at Uvira, and still passes 

 northward into Chowambe, by a river named Loando. These are the parts, 

 regarding which, I suspend my judgment. If I am in error there, and live 

 through it, I shall correct myself." 



Here follow a number of surmises as to the course of the river running out 

 of Ulenge which were exceedingly interesting at the time, but are now fore- 

 stalled by information derived from personal observation, with which we will 

 deal further on. "My opinion at present is, if the large amount of water I 

 have seen going north, does not flow past Tanganyika on the west, it must 

 have an exit from the lake, and in all likelihood by the Loanda. . . On 

 the northern slope of the upland, and on the 2nd of April, 1867, I discovered 

 Lake Liemba. It lies in a hollow with precipitous sides, 2,000 feet down. 

 It is extremely beautiful, sides, top, and bottom, being covered with trees and 

 other vegetation. Elephants, buffaloes, and antelopes, feed on the steep slopes, 

 while hippopotami, crocodiles, and fish, swarm in the waters. Guns being 

 unknown, the elephants, unless sometimes deceived into a pitfall, have it all 

 their own way. . . It is as perfect a natural paradise as Xenophon could 

 have desired. On two rocky islands, men till the land, rear goats, and catch 

 fish ; the villages ashore are embowered in the palm-oil palms of the west 

 coast of Africa. Four considerable streams flow into Liemba, and a number 

 of brooks, from 12 to 15 feet broad, leap down the steep bright clay schist rocks, 

 and form splendid cascades, that made the dullest of my attendants pause and 

 remark with wonder. I measured one of the streams fifty miles from its con- 

 fluence, and found it, at a ford, 294 feet, say 100 yards broad, . . thigh 

 and waist deep, and flowing fast over hardened sandstone flag, in September. 

 The last rain had fallen on the 12th of May. . . The Louzua drives a 

 large body of smooth water into Liemba ; this body of water was ten fathoms 

 deep. Another of the four streams is said to be larger than the Lofu ; but 

 an over-officious headman prevented me from seeing more of it and another 

 than three mouths. The lake is not large — from 18 to 20 miles broad, and 

 from 30 to 40 long ; it goes off N.N.W. in a river-like prolongation, two miles 

 wide, it is said, to Tanganyika.* . . I tried to follow the river-like por- 

 tion, but was prevented by a war which had broken out between the chief of 

 Itawa and a party of ivory traders from Zanzibar. I then set off to go 150 

 miles south, then west, till past the disturbed district, and explore the west of 

 Tanganyika ; but on going 80 miles, I found the Arab party, showed them a 

 letter from the Sultan of Zanzibar, which I owe to the kind offices of his 

 Excellency, Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay, and was at once supplied 



* This Dr. Livingstone afterwards found to be correct 



