402 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



and the inferior, which is dark and sandy, at about half that 

 price. On the coast the principal ports and towns supply 

 themselves with sea-salt evaporated in the rudest way. Pits 

 sunk near the numerous lagoons and backwaters allow the saline 

 particles to infiltrate ; the contents, then placed in a pierced 

 earthen pot, are allowed to strain into a second beneath. They 

 are inspissated by boiling, and are finally dried in the sun, when 

 the mass assumes the form of sand. This coarse salt is sold 

 after the rains, when it abounds, for its weight of holcus ; when 

 dear, the price is doubled. In the interior there are two great 

 markets, and the regularity of communication enables the people 

 to fare better as regards the luxury than the more civilised 

 races of Abyssinia and Harar, where of a millionnaire it is said, 

 " he eateth salt." An inferior article is exported from Ugogo, 

 about half-way between the East Coast and the Tanganyika 

 Lake. A superior quality is extracted from the pits near the 

 Rusugi River in Western Uvinza, distant but a few days from 

 Ujiji. For the prices and other conditions of sale the reader is 

 referred to Chapters V. and VII. 



The subject of exports will be treated of at some length; it 

 is not only interesting from its intrinsic value, but it is capable of 

 considerable development, and it also offers a ready entrance 

 for civilisation. The African will never allow the roads to be 

 permanently closed — none but the highly refined amongst man- 

 kind can contemplate with satisfaction a life of utter savagery. 

 The Arab is too wise to despite " protection," but he will not 

 refuse to avail himself of assistance offered by foreigners when 

 they appear as capitalists. Hitherto British interests have been 

 neglected in this portion of the African continent, and the name 

 of England is unknown in the interior. Upon the island of 

 Zanzibar, in 1857-8, there was not an English firm; no line of 

 steamers connected it with India or the Cape, and, during the 

 dead season, nine months have elapsed before the answer to a 

 letter has been received from home. 



The reader is warned that amongst the East Africans the 

 "bay o shara" — -barter or round trade — is an extensive subject, 

 of which only the broad outlines and general indications can be 

 traced. At present, the worthlessness of time enables both 

 buyer and seller to haggle ad libitum, and the superior craft of 

 the Arab, the Banyan, the Msawahili, and the more civilised 

 slave, has encumbered with a host of difficulties the simplest 

 transactions. It is easy to be a merchant and to buy wholesale 

 at Zanzibar, but a lengthened period of linguistic study and of 

 conversancy with the habits and customs of the people must be 



