AN AFRICAN QUEEN. 505 



the Lake Nyassa district until he left Cazembe's country, he was travelling 

 in regions to some extent known to us through his own previous explorations, 

 and those of Portuguese travellers. Beyond Cazembe's country, either to the 

 north or the west, lay a vast extent of country totally unknown to Europeans, 

 and of which even the most intelligent native knew only, and that imper- 

 fectly, a narrow hem of from fifty to a hundred miles in extent. Cazembe 

 was first made known to us by Lacerda, the Portuguese traveller. Living- 

 stone found the present ruler of Cazembe to be a kingly savage. He describes 

 him as a tall, stalwart man, wearing a peculiar kind of dress made of crimson 

 print, and worn in many folds in the form of a prodigious kilt, the upper part 

 of his body being bare. The statement of the traveller, that he was going 

 north in search of lakes and rivers, filled him with astonishment. " What 

 can you want to go there for?" he said. " The water is close here ! There 

 is plenty of large water in this neighbourhood !" Cazembe had never seen an 

 Englishman before; and notwithstanding that he could not understand this 

 water-seeker, and very possibly thought him wrong in the head, or, as Living- 

 stone puts it, that " he had water on the brain," he gave orders to his chiefs 

 and people that the traveller was to be allowed to go wherever he had a mind, 

 and treated him with much consideration. 



Cazembe's queen, described as a fine tall woman, paid the traveller a visit, 

 and evidently intended to give him a striking idea of the honour done him. 

 She was decked out in all the finery her wardrobe could muster, and was 

 armed with a ponderous spear. Following her was a body-guard of Ama- 

 zons, also armed with spears. His royal visitor and her retinue, and their 

 dress and accoutrements, did astonish the stranger, but not in the way in- 

 tended. He burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, which disconcerted 

 the royal lady for a moment ; but recovering herself, she joined heartily in 

 the laugh — which was re-echoed by her attendants — and then fled from his 

 presence until she had recovered the dignity and gravity becoming so great 

 a queen. The Portuguese assertion, that the river he found running to the 

 north, and named the Chambezi, was one of the main branches of the Zam- 

 besi, cost him many a month of tedious and unprofitable wandering. 

 Although he was not long in forming doubts as to the truth of tbis con- 

 clusion, the similarity in name made him cautious in accepting his own 

 notions regarding it. Up and down and across its course he wandered 

 like an uneasy spirit, until at last the conclusion was forced upon him, 

 that it flowed to the north, and could be none other than the head waters 

 of the Nile. 



Striking away to the north-east of Cazembe's country, he came to a 



large lake called by the natives Liemba, from the country of that name 



which borders it. Following its winding shore to the northwards, he found 



it to be a continuation of Lake Tanganyika. Returning to the southern end 



p2 



