12 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



basah, and the reserve supply of cloth, wire, and beads, 

 valued at 359 dollars. The Hindus promised faithfully 

 to forward these articles, and received 1 50 dollars for the 

 hire of twenty-two men, who were to start in ten days. 

 Nearly eleven months, however, elapsed before they ap- 

 peared ; caravan after caravan came up from the coast, yet 

 the apathetic Bhattias pretended want of porters as the 

 cause of their delay. Evidently my preparations were 

 hurriedly made ; strong reasons, however, urged me on, 

 — delay, even for a few days, might have been fatal. 



During the brief detention off Wale Point, the lati- 

 tudes and longitudes of the estuary of the Kingani, 

 the main artery of these regions, and of the little 

 settlements Bagamoyo and Kaole,— strongly against the 

 advice of Lieut-Colonel Hamerton, who declared that 

 by such proceedings the Expedition was going to the 

 bad, — were laid down by my companion: a novice 

 lunarian, he was assisted by Mohammed bin Khamis, who 

 had read his " Norie" in England. Various visits to the 

 hippopotamus haunts produced little beyond the dam- 

 aging of the corvette's gig, which, suddenly uplifted from 

 the water upon the points of two tusks, showed two cor- 

 responding holes in her bottom. Nor did I neglect to 

 land as often as possible at Kaole, the point of departure 

 upon the mainland, for the purpose of making sketches 

 with the pen and pencil, of urging on preparations, and 

 of gathering those items of " bazar-gup," i. e., tittle- 

 tattle, that represents the labours of the " fourth 

 estate " in Eastern lands. 



The little settlement of " Kaole " — an abbreviation of 

 Kaole Urembo, meaning literally, in the ancient dialect 

 of the coast, "to show beauty " — is the normal village- 

 port in these regions, which, from Mombasah south- 

 wards to Kilwa, still ignore a town of masonry. You 



