126 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



had often begged the Arab to enter into " blood-bro- 

 therhood " with him, and this had Said bin Salim perti- 

 naciously refused, on religious grounds, to do. When 

 informed that battle and murder were in the wind, he at 

 once made fraternity with Lurinda, hoping to derive 

 protection from his spear. His terrors afterwards per- 

 suaded him to do the same with Kannena : indeed at 

 that time he would have hailed a slave as " Ndugu 

 yango!" (my brother!) 



When Kannena returned successful from his visit to 

 Kanoni, we prepared to leave Wafanya. The fierce 

 rain and the nightly drizzle detained us, however, till 

 the next morning. On the 11th May we paddled round 

 the southern point of Wafanya Bay to Makimoni, 

 a little grassy inlet, where the canoes were defended 

 from the heavy surf. 



After this all was easy. We rattled paddles on the 

 12th May, as we entered our " patrie," Nyasanga. The 

 next night was spent in Bangwe Bay. We were too 

 proud to sneak home in the dark ; we had done some- 

 thing deserving a Certain Cross, we were heroes, braves 

 of braves ; we wanted to be looked at by the fair, to be 

 howled at by the valiant. Early on the morning of the 

 13th May we appeared with shots, shouts, and a shock- 

 ing noise, at the reed-lined gap of sand that forms the 

 ghaut of Kawele. It was truly a triumphal entrance. 

 All the people of that country-side had collected to 

 welcome the crew, women and children, as well as men, 

 pressed waist-deep into the water to receive friend and 

 relative with becoming affection : — the gestures, the 

 clamour, and the other peculiarities of the excited mob 

 I must really leave to the reader's imagination; the 

 memory is too much for me. 



But true merit is always modest ; it aspires to Honor, 

 not honours. The Wagungu, or whites, were repeatedly 



