328 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. XXXI. 
wanting either the spirit or the power to reduce those 
islanders to subjection, they must allow their own 
subjects, whom they fail to protect against the con- 
tinual inroads of the Biidduma, to deal with the 
latter at their own discretion. It was my earnest 
wish to go on board one of the boats, and to examine 
their make attentively ; and, with the assistance of 
Kashella Kotoko, who was well-known to the Biid- 
duma, I should perhaps have succeeded, if Bu-Sad, 
my Mohammedan companion, had not behaved like a 
madman : indeed I could scarcely restrain him from 
firing at these people, who had done us no harm. 
This was certainly a mere outbreak of fanaticism. 
When the people in the boats saw my servant's ex- 
cited behaviour, they left the shore, though numerous 
enough to overpower us ; and we then rode on to 
another creek called Mellela, whence we turned west- 
wards, and in about an hour, partly through water, 
partly over a grassy plain, reached Maduwari. 
Maduwari, at that time, was an empty sound for 
me — a name without a meaning, just like the names 
of so many other places at which I had touched on 
my wanderings ; but it was a name about to become 
important in the history of the expedition, to which 
many a serious remembrance was to be attached. 
Maduwari was to contain another white man's grave, 
and thus to rank with Ngurutuwa. 
When I first entered the place from the side of the 
lake, it made a very agreeable impression upon me, 
as it showed evident signs of ease and comfort, and, 
instead of being closely packed together, as most of the 
