248 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



Directors, or to the Foreign Office."* The only acknow- 

 ledgment which I received, was the edifying information 

 that the Secretary to Government, Bomba} T , was directed 

 by the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, 

 Bombay, to state that my " want of discretion and due 

 regard for the authorities to whom I am subordinate, has 

 been regarded with displeasure by the Government." 



This was hard. I have perhaps been Quixotic enough 

 to attempt a suggestion that, though the Mediterranean 

 is fast becoming a French lake, by timely measures the 

 Bed Sea may be prevented from being converted into a 

 Franco-Busso-Austrian lake. But an Englishman in 

 these days must be proud, very proud, of his nation, and 

 withal somewhat regretful that he was not born of some 

 mighty mother of men — such as Russia and America — 

 who has not become old and careless enough to leave 

 her bairns unprotected, or cold and crusty enough to 

 reward a little word of wisdom from her babes and 

 sucklings with a scolding or a buffet. 



The sore, however, had its salve. The official wig 

 was dated the 23rd of July, 1857. Posts are slow 

 in Africa. When received on the 5th of December, 

 1858, it was accompanied by a copy of a Bombay News- 

 paper, which reported that on the 30th of June, 1858, 

 " a massacre of nearly all the Christians took place at 

 Juddah, on the Red Sea," and that " it was apprehended 

 that the news from Juddah might excite the Arab 

 population of Suez to the commission of similar out- 

 rages." 



At Ugogi, which, it will be remembered, is considered 

 the half-way station between Unyanyembe and the 

 coast, the sons of Ramji and the porters detained us 

 for a day, declaring that there was a famine upon the 



* The whole correspondence, with its reply and counter-reply, are printed 

 in Appendix. 



