ble to
go north: the Wanyamwesi, who are detained here as well as we, say it
is often more than a man's depth, and there are no canoes. They would
not stop here if a passage home could be made. I am thinking of going
to Lake Bemba, because at least two months must be passed here still
before a passage can be made; but my goods are getting done, and I
cannot give presents to the chiefs on our way.

This Lake has a sandy, not muddy bottom, as we were at first informed,
and there are four islands in it, one, the Bangweolo, is very large,
and many people live on it; they have goats and sheep in abundance:
the owners of canoes demand three hoes for the hire of one capable of
carrying eight or ten persons; beyond this island it is sea horizon
only. The tsebula and nzoe antelopes abound. The people desire salt
and not beads for sale.

_2nd April, 1868._--If I am not deceived by the information I have
received from various reliable sources, the springs of the Nile rise
between 9 deg. and 10 deg. south latitude, or at least 400 or 500 miles
south of the south end of Speke's Lake, which he considered to be the
sources of the Nile. Tanganyika is declared to send its water through
north into Lake Chowambe or Baker's Lake; if this does not prove
false, then Tanganyika is an expansion of the Nile, and so is Lake
Chowambe; the two Lakes being connected by the River Loanda.
Unfortunately the people on the east side of the Loanda are constantly
at war with the people on the west of it, or those of Rusisi. The
Arabs have been talking of opening up a path through to Chowambe,
where much ivory is reported; I hope that the Most High may give me a
way there.

_11th April, 1868._--I had a long oration from Mohamad yesterday
against going off for Bemba to-morrow. His great argument is the
extortionate way of Casembe, who would demand cloth, and say that in
pretending to go to Ujiji I had told him lies: he adds to this
argument that this is the last month of the rains; the Masika has
begun, and our way north will soon be open. The fact of the matter is
that Mohamad, by not telling me of the superabundance of water in the
country of the Marungu, which occurs every year, caused me to lose
five months. He knew that we should be detained here, but he was so
eager to get out of his state of durance with Casembe that he hastened
my departure by asserting that we should be at Ujiji in one month. I
regret this deception, but it is not to be wondere