st to
the country of the real cannibals. His people laugh, and say,
'Yes, we eat the flesh of men,' and should they see the
inquirer to be credulous, enter into particulars. A black
stuff smeared on the cheeks is the sign of mourning, and they
told one of my people who believes all they say that it is
animal charcoal made of the bones of the relatives they have
eaten. They showed him the skull of one recently devoured,
and he pointed it out to me in triumph. It was the skull of a
gorilla, here called 'soko,' and this they do eat. They put a
bunch of bananas in his way, and hide till he comes to take
them, and spear him. Many of the Arabs believe firmly in the
cannibal propensity of the Manyuema. Others who have lived
long among them, and are themselves three-fourths African
blood, deny it. I suspect that this idea must go into
oblivion with those of people who have no knowledge of fire,
of the Supreme Being, or of language. The country abounds in
food,--goats, sheep, fowls, buffaloes, and elephants: maize,
holcuserghum, cassaba, sweet potatoes, and other farinaceous
eatables, and with ground-nuts, palm-oil, palms, and other
fat-yielding nuts, bananas, plantains, sugar-cane in great
plenty. So there is little inducement to eat men, but I wait
for further evidence.

"Not knowing how your head has fared, I sometimes feel
greatly distressed about you, and if I could be of any use I
would leave my work unfinished to aid you. But you will have
every medical assistance that can be rendered, and I cease
not to beg the Lord who healeth his people to be gracious to
your infirmity.

"The object of my Expedition is the discovery of the sources
of the Nile. Had I known all the hardships, toil, and time
involved, I would of been of the mind of St. Mungo, of
Glasgow, of whom the song says that he let the Molendinar
Burn 'rin by,' when he could get something stronger. I would
have let the sources 'rin by' to Egypt, and never been made
'drumly' by my plashing through them. But I shall make this
country and people better known. 'This,' Professor Owen said
to me, 'is the first step; the rest will in due time follow.'
By different agencies the Great Ruler is bringing all things
into a focus. Jesus is gathering all things unto Himself, and