268 
Lake Bangweolo. 
Nyassa. His plan was to start from the African coast near Zanzibar, 
and proceed overland to the head of Nyassa. Towards the end of 
1882 he set out with a party of one hundred and twenty-one men, 
negroes and a few Arabs, with an abundance of firearms and ammu- 
nition. His boat was made of soft steel, in five water-tight compart- 
ments, and in shape like a whale-boat. It was nearly twenty-five 
feet long, and five feet broad, and took twenty bearers to carry it. 
As may be supposed, the difficulties he met with were often very 
formidable, his boat having to be taken at times over high mountains. 
In four months the head of Lake Nyassa was reached, but M. Giraud 
sought to press on to Lake Bangweolo. He does not seem to have 
entertained the idea of reaching it by the Chambeze river,"* but 
sought to carry his boat at some distance from that river, though in 
a course parallel with it. Proceeding first on the south side of the 
Chambeze, he reached the town of Mkewe (see map opposite), a 
chief who was then about forty years old. Stockades and ditches 
around the town, one after another, told of the warlike character of 
this chief, and M. Giraud noticed among his people some men whose 
noses or ears had been cut off. Mkewe's six drummers had a thumb 
on each hand, but no fingers, and his three singing-men had been 
deprived of their eyes. 
A European travelling with so large a party, and so well stocked 
with arms and goods, was expected to pay heavy tribute, and this 
seems to have been a constant cause of difficulty. The accounts 
given him of two chiefs further down, on the south side of the river, 
Marukutu and Moincoiremfumu, were so bad that he determined to 
cross the Chambeze, and to proceed on the north side. He describes 
at great length the difficulties of passing this flooded river, about 
three days being chiefly occupied in wading through the marshes 
extending for miles on either side. The river itself was soon crossed, 
apparently at about the same point that Livingstone crossed it in 1867, 
when coming up from the south of Nyassa. 
On the north side another chief, Ketimkuru, lived in a stockaded 
town, but was not so extortionate as Mkewe. Human heads on the 
tops of the stockades, and a pair of ears and eyes fresh with blood, 
told, however, that the same cruelties were carried out north of the 
river as south of it. Indeed, M. Giraud says that everywhere the 
Bemba people practise these barbarous customs. 
• Ketimkuru remembered Livingstone, and contrasted his age with 
Giraud's youth. He called Livingstone the " Ingreso " (Englishman), 
and considered that M. Giraud must have come from England. 
Addressing him as "Msungu" (god), by which title this French 
* Mr. J. W. Moir quite thought to have been able to communicate with 
Mr.*Arnot from Lake Nyassa by descending this river, and had a boat in 
readiness for the purpose ; but the Arab wars hindered this project as well as 
most of the useful operations of the African Lakes' Company. 
