UFIPA. 



158 



slaves ; they are surly and stubborn, exceedingly de- 

 praved, and addicted to desertion. 



Crossing the Runangwa or Marungu River, which, 

 draining the southern countries towards the Tanganyika, 

 is represented to equal the Malagarazi in volume, the 

 traveller passes through the districts of Marungu 

 Tafuna, Ubeyya, and Iwemba. Thence, turning to the 

 north, he enters the country of the Wapoka, between 

 whom and the Lake lie the Wasowwa and the Wafipa. 

 This coast is divided from the opposite shore by a 

 voyage of fourteen hours; it is a hilly expanse divided 

 by low plains, where men swarm according to the 

 natives like ants. At a short distance from the shore 

 lies the Mvuma group, seven rocks or islets, three of 

 which are considerable in size, and the largest, shaped 

 like a cone, breeds goats in plenty, whilst the sea around 

 is rich in fish. There are other islets in the neighbour- 

 hood, but none are of importance. 



Ufipa is an extensive district fertilised by many 

 rivers. It produces grain in abundance, and the wild 

 rice is of excellent flavour. Cattle abounded there 

 before the Watuta, who held part of the country, began 

 a system of plunder and waste, which ended in their 

 emigration to the north of Uvinza ; cows, formerly 

 purchased for a few strings of cheap white beads, are 

 now rare and dear. The Wafipa are a wild but kindly 

 people, who seldom carry arms : they have ever wel- 

 comed the merchants that visited them for slaves and 

 ivory, and they are subject to four or five principal 

 chiefs. The servile specimens seen at Unyanyembe 

 were more like the jungle races of the Deccan than 

 Africans — small and short, sooty and shrunken men, so 

 timid, ignorant, and suspicious, that it was found im- 

 possible to obtain from them the simplest specimen of 



