CAPTAIN BALFOUR. 



105 



shark by our seamen, and for the same cause not a 

 scrap of food must be thrown overboard — even the offal 

 must be cast into the hold. "Whittling" is here a 

 mortal sin: to chip or break off the smallest bit of 

 even a condemned old tub drawn up on the beach causes 

 a serious disturbance. By the advice of a kind and 

 amiable friend *, I had supplied myself with the de- 

 siderata for sounding and ascertaining the bottom of the 

 Lake : the crew would have seen me under water rather 

 than halt for a moment when it did not suit their purpose. 

 The wild men lose half an hour, when time is most 

 precious, to secure a dead fish as it floats past the canoe 

 entangled in its net. They never pass a village without 

 a dispute; some wishing to land, others objecting be- 

 cause some wish it. The captain, who occupies some 

 comfortable place in the bow, stern, or waist, has little 

 authority ; and if the canoe be allowed to touch the 



* Captain Balfour, H. M.I.N. , who kindly supplied me with a list of ne- 

 cessaries for sail-making and other such operations on the Lake. I had in- 

 dented upon the Engineers' Stores, Bombay, for a Massey's patent or self- 

 registering log, which would have been most useful had the people allowed it 

 to be used. Prevented by stress of business from testing it in India, I found 

 it at sea so thoroughly defective, that it was returned from whence it came by 

 the good aid of Captain Frushard, then commanding the H.E.I.C.'s sloop of 

 war Elphinstone. I then prepared at Zanzibar, a line and a lead, properly 

 hollowed to admit of its being armed, and this safely reached the Tangan- 

 yika Lake. It was not useless but unused : the crew objected to its being 

 hove, and moreover — lead and metal are never safe in Central Africa — the line, 

 which was originally short, was curtailed of one half during the first night 

 after our departure from Kawele. It is by no means easy to estimate the 

 rate of progress in these barbarous canoes barbarously worked. During the 

 " spirts " when the paddler bends his back manfully to his task, a fully- 

 manned craft may attain a maximum of 7 to 8 miles per hour : this exertion, 

 however, rarely exceeds a quarter of an hour, and is always followed by delay. 

 The usual pace, when all are fresh and cool, is about 4 to 5 miles, which de- 

 clines through 4 and 3 to when the men are fatigued, or when the sun is 

 high. The medium, therefore, may be assumed at 4 miles for short, and a 

 little more than 2 miles an hour for long trips, halts deducted. 



