138 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
this kind far more beautiful — far more wonderful — lie 
should long ago have expended all his powers of 
admiring- scenes in nature. 
o 
From Bagamovo to Ujiji I had seen nothing to com- 
pare to them — -none of these fishing settlements under 
the shade of a grove of palms and plantains, banians 
and mimosa, with cassava gardens to the right and left 
of palmy forests, and patches of luxuriant grain looking 
down upon a quiet bay, whose calm waters at the early 
morn reflected the beauties of the hills which sheltered 
them from the rough and boisterous tempests that so 
often blew without. 
The fishermen evidently think themselves comfortably 
situated. The lake affords them all the fish they require, 
more than enough to eat, and the industrious a great- 
deal to sell. The steep slopes of the hills, cultivated by 
the housewives, contribute plenty of grain, such as 
dourra and Indian corn, besides cassava, ground-nuts or 
pea-nuts, and sweet potatoes. The palm trees afford 
oil, and the plantains an abundance of delicious fruit. 
The ravines and deep gullies supply them with the tall 
shapely trees from which they cut out their canoes. 
Nature has supplied them bountifully with all that a 
man’s heart or stomach can desire. It is while looking 
at what seems both externally and internally complete 
and perfect happiness that the thought occurs — how 
must these people sigh, when driven across the dreary 
wilderness that intervenes between the lake country 
and the sea-coast, for such homes as these ! — those un- 
fortunates who, bought by the Arabs for a couple of 
doti, are taken away to Zanzibar to pick cloves, or do 
hamal work ! 
As we drew near Niasanga, our second camp, the com- 
parison between the noble array of picturesque hills and 
receding coves, with their pastoral and agricultural 
scenes, and the shores of old Pontus, was very great. 
A few minutes before we hauled our canoe ashore, two 
little incidents occurred. I shot an enormous dog-faced 
monkey, which measured from nose to end of tail 4 feet 
9 inches ; the face was 8-1 inches long, its body weighed 
