662 
AN AFRICAN CEREMONY. 
five or six months, and in that time, or perhaps less time, 
at least, I had good reason to hope that the exploration 
would be finished, and my return would be up Albert Lake 
and Tanganyika, instead of the dreary part of Manyema 
and Guba, which I knew already perfectly. The desire to 
finish the geograpical part of my work Avas, and is, most 
intense every time my family comes into my mind. I also 
hoped that, as usual, ere long I should gain influence oA'cr 
my attendants, but 1 never had experience with Banian 
Moslem slaves before, avIio had imbibed little of the Mo- 
hammedan religion but its fulsome pride, and whose previ- 
ous employment had been browbeating Arab debtors, some- 
Avhat like the lowest class of our sheriff officers. 
As we went across the second great bend of the Lualaba, 
the 3 r showed themselves to be all accomplished cowards, in 
constant dread of being killed and eaten by the Manyema. 
Failing to induce me to spend all the goods and return, 
they refused to go beyond a point far down the Lualaba, 
where I rvas almost in sight of the end towards which I 
strained. They iioav tried to stop further progress by 
falsehood, and they found at the camp of Ujijian and main- 
land Arabs, a number of willing helpers to propagate the 
slander “that I wanted neither ivory nor slaves, but a 
canoe, to kill Manyema.” Can it be wondered at that 
people Avho had never seen strangers before, or even heard 
of white men, believed them? By this slander, and the 
ceremony of mixing blood Avith the head men, the main- 
land and Ujijian Arabs seciwed nine canoes, while I could 
not purchase one. But four days bcloAv this part narroAvs 
occur, in which the mighty river is compressed by rocks, 
which jut in, not opposite to each other, but alternately ; 
and the water rushing round the promontories, forms ter- 
rible whirlpools, which overturned one of the canoes, and 
so terrified the whole party that by deceit preceded me, 
that they returned Avithout ever thinking of dragging the 
canoes past the difficulty. This I should have done to gain 
the confluence of the Lomaine, some fifty miles below, and 
