COMMERCE AMONG THE MWERAS. 851 



red. We were ferried over in four small canoes, which made seven journeys 

 each. Two days more brought us to the Mwera forest, and just as we left 

 the river, we met a man who said he was six days from Lindi, which makes 

 one believe that it is possible for a native going express to get to Mataka's in 

 from ten to fifteen days, as all the coast people say that it is. 



" On the 16th of January we were again among the Mweras, for whom 

 I confess a strong liking. They have no slave trade, but drive a brisk busi- 

 ness with the coast in Kafir corn, rice, semsem seed, tobacco, and copal, to 

 which they have just added india-rubber, and may add bees-wax, for honey 

 is so abundant that we may almost say their standard food is porridge and 

 honey. The copal lies close to the surface in quite uncertain patches. The 

 Mweras have a tool like a broad spud, with which they sound where they 

 fancy likely places, and by use can recognise at once if they strike copal. 

 The finder is then entitled to all he can stretch over, say six feet each way, 

 beyond which any one else may dig. Sometimes a lucky find will fill his bag 

 at once, but more commonly the loads taken down to the coast are many 

 days in gathering. I offered te teach any lads that would go down with me, 

 but some did not care to learn, and more were afraid they might never come 

 back. However, a beginning is made, and in time they will know and trust 

 us. It is sad to think that, unless we can do something, their end must be 

 to be swept into hopeless foreign slavery, as at any time by a Gwangwara 

 raid they might be, for they have no principle of unity, and Seyed Barg- 

 hash's policy makes it impossible for them to get powder, without which 

 their guns are useless. 



" We made no stay among them, for food was scarce, and rain was plen- 

 tiful ; and one night, through the obstinacy of our guide, who would not stop 

 at a village when the storm threatened, I got for the first time thoroughly 

 wet through. So on January 21st we walked again into Lindi in very good 

 general condition; indeed, that one night's rain was the only serious damage 

 we had encountered, our bell tent having preserved the goods, and my water- 

 proof sheets myself, from all the previous downpours. We were thus thirty- 

 one days from Mataka's country, of which twenty-five were full days of 

 marching, and the remaining six days of resting and food buying. 



" The line I traversed has been the scene of terrible destruction since the 

 time that our mission was first started, and whole nations have practically 

 disappeared. The Yaos are now in every sense the strongest in mind and 

 body, as well as in numbers. None of the tribes have a common head, but 

 Mataka, Makanjila, and Mponda, are really great chiefs. 



"The Mweras are even less united; every little group of huts is inde- 

 pendent. There is a story current of a Mwera who had thirteen daughters, 

 and determined to be a chief. So he cleared a new spot in the forest, and 

 every one who wished to marry one of his daughters he made it a condition 



