4 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



pian, which, from the information of divers " natives," 

 he had deposited in slug or leech shape in the heart of 

 Intertropical Africa, thus prolonging the old " Maravi," or 

 "Moravim Lake" of Portuguese travellers and school 

 atlases, to the north of the equator, and thus bringing 

 a second deluge upon sundry provinces and kingdoms 

 thoroughly well known for the last half century. He 

 had proposed to land, with an outfit of 300 dollars*, 

 at Kilwa, one of the southern ports of the Zanzibar 

 mainland, to hire a score of Wasawahili porters, to 

 march with a caravan upon the nearest point of his 

 own water, and to launch an adventurous canoe upon 

 a lake which, according to his map, could not be tra- 

 versed under twenty-five days. Messrs. Erhardt and 

 Krapf, of the " Mombas Mission," spent, it is true, a 

 few hours at Kilwa, where they were civilly entreated by 

 the governor and the citizens ; but they egregiously de- 

 ceived themselves and others, when they concluded that 

 they could make that place their ingress-point. Lieut. 

 Christopher, I.N., who visited the East African coast in 

 1843, wisely advised explorers to avoid the neighbour- 



* The sum was wholly inadequate. M. Erhardt has, I have been told, ex- 

 pended as much on a week's march from Pangani Town to Fu'ga. The small- 

 est of Wasawahili pedlars would hardly deem an outfit of 300 dollars sufficient. 

 M. Erhardt was, even according to his own reduced ideas of distance, to march 

 with twenty followers 400 miles, and to explore a lake 300 miles in breadth 

 and of unknown length. In 1802, when cloth and beads were twice their 

 present value in Africa, the black Pombeiros sent by M. Da Costa, super- 

 intendent of the " Cassangi Factory," carried with them for the necessary 

 expenses and presents, goods to the value of nearly 500Z. M. Erhardt's 

 estimate was highly injurious to future travellers: either he knew the truth, 

 and he should have named at once a reasonable estimate, or he was ignorant 

 of the subject, and he should have avoided it. The consequence of his proposal 

 was simply this: — With 5000Z. instead of 1000Z., the limited sum of the 

 Government grant, the East African Expedition could have explored the 

 whole central area ; nothing but the want of supplies caused their return at 

 the time when, after surmounting sickness, hardship, and want of discipline 

 amongst the party, they were ready to push to the extreme end. 



