ndants, and that in such helpless state he made many inventions
which most of his progeny retained, but never improved upon during some
thirty centuries.

We crossed in canoes the arm of the Lake, which joins Chia to Nyassa, and
spent the night on its northern bank. The whole country adjacent to the
Lake, from this point up to Kota-kota Bay, is densely peopled by
thousands who have fled from the forays of the Mazitu in hopes of
protection from the Arabs who live there. In three running rivulets we
saw the _Shuare_ palm, and an oil palm which is much inferior to that on
the West Coast. Though somewhat similar in appearance, the fruit is not
much larger than hazel-nuts, and the people do not use them, on account
of the small quantity of oil which they afford.

The idea of using oil for light never seems to have entered the African
mind. Here a bundle of split and dried bamboo, tied together with
creeping plants, as thick as a man's body, and about twenty feet in
length, is employed in the canoes as a torch to attract the fish at
night. It would be considered a piece of the most wasteful extravagance
to burn the oil they obtain from the castor-oil bean and other seeds, and
also from certain fish, or in fact to do anything with it but anoint
their heads and bodies.

We arrived at Kota-kota Bay in the afternoon of the 10th September, 1863;
and sat down under a magnificent wild fig-tree with leaves ten inches
long, by five broad, about a quarter of a mile from the village of Juma
ben Saidi, and Yakobe ben Arame, whom we had met on the River Kaombe, a
little north of this, in our first exploration of the Lake. We had
rested but a short time when Juma, who is evidently the chief person
here, followed by about fifty people, came to salute us and to invite us
to take up our quarters in his village. The hut which, by mistake, was
offered, was so small and dirty, that we preferred sleeping in an open
space a few hundred yards off.

Juma afterwards apologized for the mistake, and presented us with rice,
meal, sugar-cane, and a piece of malachite. We returned his visit on the
following day, and found him engaged in building a dhow or Arab vessel,
to replace one which he said had been wrecked. This new one was fifty
feet long, twelve feet broad, and five feet deep. The planks were of a
wood like teak, here called Timbati, and the timbers of a closer grained
wood called Msoro. The sight of this dhow gave us a hint which,