ganyika. Rising in the air to a height of about ten thousand feet,
they slowly traversed the latter from its northern extremity, reaching
its widest part--which they estimated to be about sixty miles across--at
mid-day.

And here a most exciting scene presented itself. An hour previously a
dark mass had been sighted near the western shore of the lake, which
mass had at first been taken for an island; but, on a nearer approach,
the supposed island had resolved itself into an immense fleet of canoes,
in number about three hundred, manned by from four to twenty men in
each, rapidly making its way toward the western shore. So large a
concourse of craft, coupled with the fact that the crews were
elaborately "got up" with paint, feathers, and skins, and were well
provided with bows and arrows, spears, shields, and clubs--to say
nothing of a few very antiquated-looking muskets which the travellers'
glasses revealed here and there--seemed to point to the conclusion that
a hostile expedition was afoot, or, rather, afloat; and the explorers
resolved upon a temporary pause in order to watch the course of events.

The natives were so intent upon their paddling that--facing forward as
they all were, with the _Flying Fish_ somewhat in their rear and nearly
a mile above them--not one of them seemed to have detected the near
vicinity of the aerial ship; and the fleet diligently pursued its course
landward, the short broad-bladed paddles moving to the time of a deep,
sonorous, but somewhat monotonous song, which, issuing as it did from
the throats of probably quite two thousand warriors, was distinctly
audible on board the _Flying Fish_, and really had quite an impressive
effect.

The flotilla had reached within about four miles of the shore, and of a
tolerably extensive native settlement built thereon on both sides of a
river which at that point emptied itself into the lake, when a sudden
confused beating of drums and blowing of horns seemed to indicate that
the menaced tribe had at last become awakened to the unpleasant fact
that an invasion of their territory was imminent. The summons was
responded to with very commendable celerity, the men swarming out of the
settlement like ants out of an ant-heap; and in less than ten minutes
nearly a hundred canoes were launched and manned, and advancing boldly
to meet the enemy, whilst the laggards pushed off by twos and threes as
soon afterwards as they could get down to the beach, all ma