274 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
that before retiring, feeling ourselves indebted to the 
Supreme Being, who had preserved us through so many 
troubles, we thanked Him for His mercies and His 
bounties. 
We rested another day on Refuge Island to make 
oars ; and further explorations enabled us to procure 
half-a-dozen more bunches of bananas. Our appetites 
were so keen that there was but little left next morning 
by the time we were ready to start afresh. With oar 
and sail we set out for Singo Island. Perceiving it was 
uninhabited, we steered for Ito Island, the slopes of 
which were rich with plantains, but the natives slung 
stones at us, and we were therefore obliged to continue 
on our way to the Kuneneh group, near the peninsula 
of Ukerewe. 
On the afternoon of the 4th of May, a stormy head- 
wind rising, we were compelled to turn into the cove 
of Wiru, where, through the influence of Saramba 
the guide, who was at home in this country, we were 
hospitably received, and meat, potatoes, milk, honey, 
bananas both ripe and green, eggs and poultry, were 
freely sold to us. We cooked these delicacies on board, 
and ate them with such relish and appetite as only half- 
starved men can appreciate. 
Hoping to reach our camp next morning, we set sail 
at 9 p.m., steering across Speke Gulf. But about 3 a.m., 
when we were nearly in mid-gulf, the fickle wind failed 
us, and then, as if resolved we should taste to the utter- 
most the extreme of suffering, it met us with a tempest 
from the N.N.E., as fearful in other respects as that 
which we experienced at Usuguru, but with the fresh 
torments added of hailstones as large as filberts. The 
sky was robed in inky blackness, not a star was visible, 
vivid lightnings flashed accompanied by loud thunder 
crashes, and furious waves tossed us about as though 
we were imprisoned in a gourd, the elements thus com- 
bining to multiply the terrors of our situation. Again 
we resigned the boat to wind and wave, as all our efforts 
to keep our course were unavailing. 
We began to think that the curse of the people of 
