372 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
of provisions here that we might have cruised for a 
month without having to call at any native port. 
The chief, Kiumeh, or Chiuma-Nanga, who lives at 
Mkigusa village, was visited with all due ceremony, and 
proved a most kindly old man. I gladly rewarded him 
for his small presents of food, and separated from him 
with feelings of attachment. 
Livingstone, who was here in May 1867, writes of 
this plain and river as follows : 
“ We came to a village about 2' west of the confluence. 
The village has a meadow about four miles wide, in 
which buffaloes disport themselves, but they are very 
wild, and hide in the gigantic grasses. The Lofu — or 
Lofubu (Rufuvu) — is a quarter of a mile wide, but 
higher up 300 yards.” 
Between the 6th of July, 1876, and May 1867, that 
is, in nine years’ time, the river Rufuvu has encroached 
upon the “ meadow ” which Livingstone saw by over a 
thousand yards ! 
It is true the plain or meadow is very low, and that 
two feet more of a rise would extend the river over half 
a mile more of ground, but the proofs are gathering that 
the lake has been steadily rising. What was nreadow- 
land in the days when Livingstone made the acquaint- 
ance of the people of Liende is now clear water half 
covered with growths of pale-blue lotus. The depth of 
the river in mid-channel is twenty-one feet. 
I should estimate the population of the plain from 
Polombwe westward to where the river narrows between 
the hills, a district of about eight square miles, as about 
2000 souls. We heard of Wangwana and some Arabs 
camping at a village called Ivungwe higher up the river 
on the left bank ; but as we had no occasion for their 
acquaintance, we did not deem it necessary to go through 
the form of visiting them. 
On the 7th, soon after quitting the Rufuvu river, w T e 
had a rough experience of the worst Ma’anda — “ south- 
wester ” — Para or Ruango, our guides, had ever been in. 
The Meofu was soon disabled, for its rudder was swept 
away, but being towed behind by a rope, it was fortu- 
