THE NY ASS A LAKE. 



367 



Sucli is the present state of a settlement 

 which in 1500 the Portuguese found prosperous 

 to the highest degree, and ruling the Zangian 

 coast to Mozambique and Sofala. Every blessing 

 save that of beauty has now passed away from it, 

 and instead of ' cet eternel nuage de fumee qui 

 dort sur les toits, et le bourdonnement lointain 

 de la ruche immense,' we see the wild ' smokes ' 

 of the tropical coast, and we hear the scream of 

 the seamew harshly invading the silence and 

 solitude of a city in ruins. 



Returning to Kivinjya, we consulted the 

 "Wall and the principal inhabitants about the 

 feasibility of a march upon the Xyassa or South- 

 ern Lake — here, as at Zanzibar, not a soul con- 

 founded it with the Tanganyika. All agreed 

 that it was then impossible. The slaves were 

 dead or sold off, and porters would not be pro- 

 curable on account of the cholera : perhaps, how- 

 ever, we might succeed by awaiting the arrival 

 of the first caravans in June. This delay we 

 could not afford, our time was becoming short, 

 our means shorter, and the climate of Kilwa was 

 doing us no good. Evidently the exploration of 

 the IN'yassa was a matter of too much importance 

 to be tacked on to an expedition as its tail-piece. 



Unwillingly but perforce we turned, on 



