6 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



hostility to strangers. These reasons led him to pro- 

 pose my landing upon the coast opposite Zanzibar, and 

 to my thence marching with a strong escort, despatched 

 by the Arab prince, through the maritime tribes, whose 

 cruel murder of M. Maizan, the first European known 

 to have penetrated beyond the sea -board, was yet fresh 

 in the memories of men. This notion was accepted the 

 more readily, as during my short preliminary sojourn 

 at Zanzibar, I had satisfactorily ascertained from Arab 

 travellers that the Maravi or Kilwa Lake is distinct from 

 the " Sea of Ujiji that the former is of comparatively 

 diminutive dimensions ; that there is no caravan route 

 between the two ; and therefore that, by exploring the 

 smaller, I should lose the chance of discovering the 

 larger water. Moreover, the general feeling of the 

 Zanzibarites — of the Christian merchants, whom I had 

 offended by collecting statistics about copal-digging, ivory, 

 and sesamum — of the Bhattias or Hindus of Cutch, who 

 systematically abuse the protection of the British flag to 

 support the interest of the slave trade — of the Arabs, 

 who remembered nothing but political intrigue in the ex- 

 plorations of the " Mombas Mission," and the lamentable 

 result of Dr. Krapf's political intrigues — and of the 

 Africans generally, who are disposed to see in every 

 innovation some new form of evil — had been conveyed 

 to my ears explicitly enough to warrant my apprehen- 

 sions for the success of the Expedition, had I insisted 

 upon carrying out the project proposed by M. Erhardt. 



I must here explain, that before my departure from 

 England, the Church Missionary Society had supplied 

 me, after a personal interview in Salisbury Square, with 

 a letter to their employe, M. Rebmann, the last remnant 

 of that establishment at Mombasah, which had, it is 

 said, expended about 12,000/. with the minimest of re- 



