y meant, and it would be pleasant to
call them Ptolemy's sources, rediscovered by the toil and enterprise of
our countrymen Speke, Grant, and Baker--but unfortunately Ptolemy has
inserted the small Lake "Coloe," nearly where the Victoria Lake stands,
and one cannot say where his two Lakes are. Of Lakes Victoria,
Bangweolo, Moero, Kamolondo--Lake Lincoln and Lake Albert, which two did
he mean? The science in his time was in a state of decadence. Were two
Lakes not the relics of a greater number previously known? What says the
most ancient map known of Sethos II.'s time?
_16th April, 1872._--Went over to visit Sultan bin Ali near
Tabora--country open, plains sloping very gently down from low rounded
granite hills covered with trees. Rounded masses of the light grey
granite crop out all over them, but many are hidden by the trees: Tabora
slopes down from some of the same hills that overlook Kwihara, where I
live. At the bottom of the slope swampy land lies, and during the Masika
it is flooded and runs westwards. The sloping plain on the North of the
central drain is called Kaze--that on the South is Tabora, and
this is often applied to the whole space between the hills north and
south. Sultan bin Ali is very hospitable. He is of the Bedawee Arabs,
and a famous marksman with his long Arab gun or matchlock. He often
killed hares with it, always hitting them in the head. He is about
sixty-five years of age, black eyed, six feet high and inclined to
stoutness, and his long beard is nearly all grey. He provided two
bountiful meals for self and attendants.
Called on Mohamad bin Nassur--recovering from sickness. He presented a
goat and a large quantity of guavas. He gave the news that came from
Dugumbe's underling Nserere, and men now at Ujiji; they went S.W. to
country called Nombe, it is near Rua, and where copper is smelted. After
I left them on account of the massacre at Nyangwe, they bought much
ivory, but acting in the usual Arab way, plundering and killing, they
aroused the Bakuss' ire, and as they are very numerous, about 200 were
killed, and none of Dugumbe's party. They brought fifty tusks to Ujiji.
We dare not pronounce positively on any event in life, but this looks
like prompt retribution on the perpetrators of the horrible and
senseless massacre of Nyangwe. It was not vengeance by the relations of
the murdered ones we saw shot and sunk in the Lualaba, for there is no
communication between the people of Nyangwe an
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