he freshets form banks inside the mouth, which
are washed out into the deep bay, and this periodical formation
probably has prevented the Arabs from using the Rovuma as a port of
shipment. It is not likely that Mr. May[4] would have made a mistake
if the middle were as shoal as now: he found soundings of three
fathoms or more.

[Illustration: Dhow used for Transport of Dr. Livingstone's Camels.]

_25th March, 1866._--I hired a house for four dollars a month and
landed all our goods from the dhow. The bay gives off a narrow
channel, about 500 yards wide and 200 yards long, the middle is deep,
but the sides are coral reefs and shoal: the deep part seems about 100
yards wide. Outside in the Bay of Mikindany there is no anchorage
except on the edge of the reef where the _Penguin_ got seven fathoms,
but further in it was only two fathoms. The inner bay is called Pemba,
not Pimlea, as erroneously printed in the charts of Owen. It is deep
and quite sheltered; another of a similar round form lies somewhat to
the south: this bay may be two miles square.

The cattle are all very much the worse for being knocked about in the
dhow. We began to prepare saddles of a very strong tree called Ntibwe,
which is also used for making the hooked spear with which hippopotami
are killed--the hook is very strong and tough; I applied also for
twenty carriers and a Banian engaged to get them as soon as possible.
The people have no cattle here, they are half-caste Arabs mostly, and
quite civil to us.

_26th March, 1866._--A few of the Nassick boys have the slave spirit
pretty strongly; it goes deepest in those who have the darkest skins.
Two Gallah men are the most intelligent and hardworking among them;
some look on work with indifference when others are the actors.

Now that I am on the point of starting on another trip into Africa I
feel quite exhilarated: when one travels with the specific object in
view of ameliorating the condition of the natives every act becomes
ennobled.

Whether exchanging the customary civilities, or arriving at a village,
accepting a night's lodging, purchasing food for the party, asking for
information, or answering polite African enquiries as to our objects
in travelling, we begin to spread a knowledge of that people by whose
agency their land will yet become enlightened and freed from the
slave-trade.

The mere animal pleasure of travelling in a wild unexplored country is
very great. When on lands of a coup