86 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



ride, and too ill to converse. My companion, who, when 

 arriving at the Tanganyika Lake was almost as "groggy" 

 upon his legs as I was, suffered from a painful ophth- 

 almia, and from a curious distortion of face, which made 

 him chew sideways, like a ruminant. Yalentine was 

 nearly blind ; and he also had a wry mouth, by no means 

 the properest for the process of mastication. Gaetano, who 

 arrived at Ujiji on the 17th February, was half-starved, 

 and his anxiety to make up for lost time brought on a 

 severe attack of fever. The Baloch complained of in- 

 fluenzas and catarrhs: too lazy to build huts after occu- 

 pying Kannena's " Traveller's Bungalow " for the usual 

 week, they had been turned out in favour of fresh visitors, 

 and their tempers were as sore as their lungs and throats. 



But work remained undone ; it was necessary to awake 

 from this lethargy. Being determined to explore the 

 northern extremity of the Tanganyika Lake, whence, 

 according to several informants, issued a large river, 

 flowing northwards, and seeing scanty chance of suc- 

 cess, and every prospect of an accident, if compelled 

 to voyage in the wretched canoes of the people, I at 

 first resolved to despatch Said bin Salim across the 

 water, and, by his intervention, to hire from an Arab 

 merchant, Hamid bin Sulayyam, the only dow, or sail- 

 ing-craft then in existence. But the little Arab 

 evidently shirked the mission, and he shirked so artisti- 

 cally, that, after a few days, I released him, and directed 

 my companion to do his best about hiring the dow, 

 and stocking it with provisions for a month's cruise. 



Then arose the preliminary difficulties of the trip. 

 Kannena and all his people, suspecting that my 

 only object was economy in purchasing provisions, 

 opposed the project ; they demanded exorbitant sums, 

 and often when bargained down and apparently satis- 



