nt Speke to show everything he possesses.

"He gets away the next day, and reaches a fish market, in the little
island of Kabizia, in time to breakfast on a large, black-backed,
scaleless monster, the _singa_. The sailors considering it delicious,
are disinclined to move on.

"Again detained by a high wind, they cross, at noon on the 11th, to
Kasenge, where Sheikh Hamer, an Arab merchant, receives Speke with warm
and generous hospitality. His house is built with good, substantial
walls of mud, and roofed with rafters and brushwood, the rooms being
conveniently partitioned off to separate his wife and other belongings,
with an ante-room for general business. His object in coming to the
remote district is to purchase ivory, slaves, and other commodities. He
is the owner of the dhow which Speke is anxious to obtain; but though he
professes his readiness to lend it, he makes numberless excuses, and
finally Speke has to continue his voyage in his small canoe.

"Slavery is the curse of this beautiful region. Here for a loin-cloth
or two a mother offers eagerly to sell one of her offspring and deliver
it into perpetual bondage to his Belooch soldiers. Whole villages are
destroyed, in the most remorseless manner, by the slave-hunters to
obtain their victims. The chiefs of the interior are as fond of gain as
those on the coast, and this sets one against the other, for the sake of
obtaining slaves to sell.

"From Hamed Speke learns that a large river runs from the Mountains of
the Moon into the northern end of the lake.

"On the 13th the dhow comes in, laden with cows, goats, oil, and _ghee_;
but, though Speke offers five hundred dollars for her hire, the Arab
merchant still refuses to lend her.

"On the 27th Speke commences his return voyage, and arrives on the 31st
at Ujiji.

"Captain Burton is somewhat recovered, and, though unfit to travel,
insists on starting in the canoe to explore the head of the lake--the
chief, Kannina, offering to accompany them. Their object is to examine
the river which is said to fall into it. They start in two canoes, the
chief and Captain Burton being in the largest. In eight days they
arrive at Uvira. The chief, however, will go no further, knowing that
the savages of the Warundi are his enemies. He confirms the statement
that the Rusizi River runs into the lake.

"The black naked crews are never tired of testing their respective
strengths. They paddle away, dashing up the wa