eceived a visit from a chief, who called to
enquire the objects he had in view, and who now announced in due form
the reply he had received. He stated that the white man had arrived for
the purpose of ascertaining what rivers and lakes existed in the
country, though, as he observed, it was difficult to comprehend why he
wished to gain such information. The king then, having put various
questions to the doctor, the answers to which seemed to satisfy him,
gave him leave to travel wherever he liked throughout his dominions, and
assured him that he could do so without the risk of interference from
any of his subjects. He had never before seen an Englishman, and he was
pleased to see one for whom he already felt a regard. Soon after the
doctor received the announcement that the queen would honour him by a
visit, and a dignified fine-looking young woman, holding a spear in her
hand, and followed by a number of damsels also with spears, made her
appearance, evidently intending to produce an effect upon the white
stranger. Her costume, however, and the enormous weapon she carried in
her hand, seems so to have tickled the doctor's fancy, that he burst
into a fit of laughter. The lady herself and her attendant maidens,
unable to resist the influence of the doctor's laugh, joined in the fun,
and, wheeling about, rapidly beat a retreat. The doctor quickly made
himself at home with his new friends, and under their protection
commenced a series of researches which occupied him for many months.

Londa, Kazembe's capital, is situated on the small Lake Mopo. To the
north of it is a very much larger lake called Moero, surrounded by lofty
mountains, clothed to their summits with the rich vegetation of the
tropics. The whole scenery is indeed beautiful and magnificent in the
extreme.

This is, however, only one of a series of lakes which the doctor
discovered in the wide-extending province of Londa. The most southern
is the large lake of Bangueolo, four thousand feet above the level of
the sea, its area almost equal to that of Lake Tanganyika. It is into
this lake that the Chambezi and a vast number of other smaller streams
empty themselves.

As the Chambezi rises in the lofty plateau of Lobisa, six thousand six
hundred feet above the level of the sea, the doctor is inclined, from
the discoveries he afterwards made, to consider that it is the true
source of the Nile, which, if such is the case, would give that river a
length