UJIJI AND TANGANTKA. 
361 
us that an African museum might have been completely 
stocked. Stools, mats, spears, drinking-vessels, cooking- 
pots of all sizes, walking-staffs, war-clubs, baskets, 
trenchers, wooden basins, scoops, &c. There were also 
abundant proofs that this ruin was recent ; a few wood- 
rails still smoked, the hearths were still warm, the dead 
were not putrefied. A coal-black cat made a dash from 
one of the houses yet standing, and the sudden motion 
startled us all in this place of death and vengeance. 
Ponda, the chief of this village, had no doubt given 
some provocation to this unknown enemy. Para thought 
the enemy must have been the robbers of Ndereli, for the 
condition of the village bore signs of superior energy in 
the attack. And yet it had been constructed with a view 
to secure immunity from the fate which generally over- 
takes weak communities in Africa in the neighbourhood 
of ferocious and war-loving tribes. A wide ditch — in 
some parts ten feet deep — and a strong palisade, with an 
earthwork, surrounded the settlement. The lake was 
close by to supply water, the country near it was open, 
and the sharpshooters’ nest-like towers commanded a 
wide view. From some thirty bleached skulls arranged 
before Ponda’s own house we argued that he did not 
himself fail to proceed to the same extremes which his 
enemies had now adopted to his utter ruin. It is the 
same story throughout Africa. 
We resumed our voyage for the mouth of the Rugufu 
river. The shore between Kiwesa and the river is com- 
paratively low. The waves have so beaten and shaken 
the low red bluffs and soft ferruginous clay that nume- 
rous landslips are constantly occurring. The debris are 
then vigorously pounded and crushed by the surf, and 
at length they are spread out into a narrow line of beach 
at their base, over which the spluttering waves surge up 
continuously. 
The impression received at Ujiji, that the Tanganika 
is rising, was confirmed whenever we neared low shores. 
Especially was it the case at the Rugufu river, and 
Para the guide, as we entered it, stood up and ex- 
claimed : — 
