406 



THE LAKE EEGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



settlement, from doing violence to caravans. When I 

 visited Usagozi it was governed by " Sultan Ryombo," 

 an old chief " adorned with much Christian courtesy." 

 His subjects are Wakalaganza, the noble tribe of the 

 Wanyamwezi, mixed, however with the Watosi, a fine- 

 looking race, markedly superior to their neighbours, but 

 satisfied with leaky, ragged, and filthy huts, and large 

 but unfenced villages. The general dress of the Waka- 

 laganza is bark-cloth, stained a dull black. 



We halted three days on the western extremity of 

 the Usagozi district, detained by another unpleasant 

 phenomenon. My companion, whose blood had been 

 impoverished, and whose system had been reduced by 

 many fevers, now began to suffer from " an inflamma- 

 tion of a low type, affecting the whole of the interior 

 tunic of the eyes, particularly the iris, the choroid coat, 

 and the retina;" he describes it as "an almost total 

 blindness, rendering every object enclouded as by a 

 misty veil." The Goanese Valentine became similarly 

 afflicted, almost on the same day ; lie complained of a 

 " drop serene " in the shape of an inky blot — probably 

 some of the black pigment of the iris deposited on the 

 front of the lens — which completely excluded the light 

 of day; yet the pupils contracted with regularity when 

 covered with the hand, and as regularly dilated when it 

 was removed. I suffered in a minor degree ; for a few 

 days webs of flitting muscae obscured smaller objects and 

 rendered distant vision impossible. My companion and 

 servant, however, subsequently, at Ujiji, were tormented 

 by inflammatory ophthalmia, which I escaped by the free 

 use of " camel-medicine." 



Quitting Usagozi on the 26th January, we marched 

 through grain fields, thick jungle-strips, and low grassy 

 and muddy savannahs to Masenza, a large and comfort- 



