ever saw a European before, and
everything about us is an immense curiosity to him and to his people.
We had long visits from him. He tries to extract a laugh out of every
remark. He is darker than the generality of Waiyau, with a full beard
trained on the chin, as all the people hereabouts have--Arab fashion.
The courts of his women cover a large space, our house being on one
side of them. I tried to go out that way, but wandered, so the ladies
sent a servant to conduct me out in the direction I wished to go, and
we found egress by passing through some huts with two doors in them.

_16th September, 1866._--At Mukate's. The Prayer Book does not give
ignorant persons any idea of an unseen Being addressed, it looks more
like reading or speaking to the book: kneeling and praying with eyes
shut is better than, our usual way of holding Divine service.

We had a long discussion about the slave-trade. The Arabs have told
the chief that our object in capturing slavers is to get them into our
own possession, and make them of our own religion. The evils which we
have seen--the skulls, the ruined villages, the numbers who perish on
the way to the coast and on the sea, the wholesale murders committed
by the Waiyau to build up Arab villages elsewhere--these things Mukate
often tried to turn off with a laugh, but our remarks are safely
lodged in many hearts. Next day, as we went along, our guide
spontaneously delivered their substance to the different villages
along our route. Before we reached him, a headman, in convoying me a
mile or two, whispered to me, "Speak to Mukate to give his forays up."

It is but little we can do, but we lodge a protest in the heart
against a vile system, and time may ripen it. Their great argument is,
"What could we do without Arab cloth?" My answer is, "Do what you did
before the Arabs came into the country." At the present rate of
destruction of population, the whole country will soon be a desert.

An earthquake happened here last year, that is about the end of it or
beginning of this (the crater on the Grand. Comoro Island smoked for
three months about that time); it shook all the houses and everything,
but they observed no other effects.[20] No hot springs are known here.

_17th September, 1866._--We marched down from Mukate's and to about
the middle of the Lakelet Pamalombe. Mukate had no people with canoes
near the usual crossing place, and he sent a messenger to see that we
were fairly served.