UNDER TEE EQUATOR, 743 



Wategi behind, and steer towards two low isolated islands not far from the 

 mainland, for a quiet night's rest; and there, under the overspreading branches 

 of a mangrove tree, we dream of unquiet waters and angry surfs and threat- 

 ening rocks, to find ourselves next morning tied to an islet which, from its 

 peculiarity, I have named Bridge Island, though its native name is Kihwa. 

 While seeking a road to ascend the island to take bearings, I discovered there 

 a natural bridge of basalt, about twenty feet in length by twelve in breadth, 

 under which the traveller might repose comfortably, and from one side see 

 the waves lashed to fury, and spending their strength on the stubborn rocks 

 that form the foundation of the arch, while from the other he could behold 

 his boat secure under the lee of the land, resting on a serene and placid sur- 

 face, and shaded by mangrove branches from the hot sun of the Equator. Its 

 ueighbour is remarkable only for a small cave, the haunt of fishermen. From 

 the summit of Bridge Island the view eastward takes in all Masavi as far as 

 Nakidimo, and discovers only a flat and slightly-wooded district, varied at 

 intervals by isolated cones ; while northward, at the distance of twenty miles 

 or more, we remark that the land makes a bold and long stretch eastward. 

 Knowing now, however, by experience, that the appearance of the coast is 

 deceptive, we hoist our sail, and scud merrily before a freshening breeze, by- 

 and-by hugging the coast again, lest it should rob us of some rarity or won- 

 der. At noon I found myself under the Equator, and four miles north I came 

 to discoloured water and a slight current flowing south of west. Seeing a small 

 bay of sufficient breadth to make a great river, and no land at its eastern extre- 

 mity, I made sure I had discovered a river which would rival the Shimeeyu ; 

 but within an hour land all round revealed the limit and extent of the Bay of 

 Nakidimo. We anchored close to a village, and began to court the attention 

 of some wild-looking fishermen, but the nude barbarians merely stared at us 

 from under penthouses of hair, and hastily stole away to tell their wives and 

 relatives of how suddenly an apparition in the shape of a boat with white 

 wings had come before them, bearing strange men with red caps on their 

 heads, except one — a pale skinned man, clad in white, whose face was as red 

 as blood — and he, jabbering something unintelligible, so frightened them that 

 they ran away. This will become a pleasant tradition, one added to the 

 many marvels now told in Ugeyeya, which, with the art of embellishment in- 

 herent in the tongue of the wondering awe-struck savage, may grow in time 

 to be the most wonderful of all wonders. 



" Perceiving that our proffered courtesies were thus rudely rejected, we 

 also stole out of the snug bay, and passed round to another much larger and 

 more important. At its extremity a river issued into the bight, which, by 

 long and- patient talk with the timid natives, we ascertained to be the 

 Ugoweh. In this the hippos were as bold as the human savages were timid, 

 and to a couple of the amphibious monsters we had to induce the ' Lady 



