porridge and a fowl, and I immediately felt the difference, though I
was not grumbling at my coarse dishes. It is well that I did not go to
Bangweolo Lake, for it is now very unhealthy to the natives, and I
fear that without medicine continual wettings by fording rivulets
might have knocked me up altogether. As I have mentioned, the people
suffer greatly from swelled thyroid gland or Derbyshire neck and
Elephantiasis scroti.

_1st January, 1868._--Almighty Father, forgive the sins of the past
year for Thy Son's sake. Help me to be more profitable during this
year. If I am to die this year prepare me for it.

* * * * *

I bought five hoes at two or three yards of calico each: they are
13-1/2 inches by 6-1/2 inches; many are made in Casembe's country, and
this is the last place we can find them: when we come into Buiré we
can purchase a good goat for one; one of my goats died and the other
dried up. I long for others, for milk is the most strengthening food
I can get.

My guide to Moero came to-day, and I visited the Lake several times,
so as to get a good idea of its size. The first fifteen miles in the
north are from twelve or more to thirty-three miles broad. The great
mass of the Rua Mountains confines it. Thus in a clear day a lower
range is seen continued from the high point of the first mass away to
the west south-west, this ends, and sea horizon is alone visible away
to the south and west; from the height we viewed it at, the width must
be over forty, perhaps sixty miles. A large island, called Kirwa,[59]
is situated between the Mandapala and Kabukwa Rivers, but nearest to