192 
AFEICA AND ITS EXPLOEATION. 
After sailing past tlie Kamassi and Kindevi islets, we 
rounded the hilly point of Masonga, and beheld on our 
right, as far as Sliizu Island, a broad bay, bounded by a 
crescent-shaped ridge, springing some 300 feet above 
the lake, and extensively wooded, while on our left lay 
the large and populous island of Ukara, peopled by an 
intensely superstitious colony, who cherish the most 
devout faith in charms and witchcraft. 
As we rode past Sliizu Island, we beheld the table- 
topped mountain of Majita rising, massive and grand, 
to the eastward. On the 16th of March we encamped 
on one of the bird-rocks about three miles from the 
base of Majita, which rises probably between 2000 and 
3000 feet above the lake. From the northern angle of 
Majita we sailed, on a north-east course for the district 
of Wye, across a deep bay distinguished only for the 
short hill range of Usambara, between which, on either 
side, extends the low and almost treeless plain of 
Shahslii to the waters of Speke Gulf. 
From Wye we coasted along populous Ururi. The 
country appears well cultivated, and villages are 
numerous. Some of the Waruri fishermen informed us 
we- should lie eight years circumnavigating the lake ! 
Numerous rocky islands, almost all uninhabited at this 
period, stud the neighbourhood of the mainland, and 
the coast is so indented with deep bays and inlets that 
it requires very careful attention to survey it. Its 
features are similar to those of Usukuma, namely, 
swelling and uneven lines of hills, sometimes with 
slopes extending for three or four miles, more often, as 
in the case of nearly all the headlands, with points 
springing abrupt and sheer from the water’s edge. 
Wherever the ridges rise gradually and at a distance 
from the lake, special advantages for cultivation appear 
to obtain, for I have noted that all such sites were 
thickly populated by the tribes of Ururi, Ukerewe, 
Sima, Magu, or Uchambi. A few of the Burdett-Coutts 
Islands exhibited traces of having been the resort of 
fugitives, for on several of them we discovered bananas 
and other garden plants, and ruined huts. We struck 
