refused. His father was the first to open this country to trade with
the Arabs, and all his expenses while so doing were borne by himself;
but Mohamad seems to be a man of peace, and unwilling to break the
appearance of friendship with the chiefs. He thinks that this Casembe
poisoned his predecessor: he certainly killed his wife's mother, a
queen, that she might be no obstacle to him in securing her daughter.

We are waiting in company with a number of Wanyamwesi for the
cessation of the rains, which have flooded the country between this
and Tanganyika. If there were much slope this water would flow off:
this makes me suspect that Tanganyika is not so low as Speke's
measurement. The Arabs are positive that water flows from that Lake to
the Victoria Nyanza, and assert that Dagara, the father of Rumanyika,
was anxious to send canoes from his place to Ujiji, or, as some say,
to dig a canal to Ujiji. The Wanyamwesi here support themselves by
shooting buffaloes, at a place two days distant, and selling the meat
for grain and cassava: no sooner is it known that an animal is killed,
than the village women crowd in here, carrying their produce to
exchange it for meat, which they prefer to beads or anything else.
Their farinaceous food creates a great craving for flesh: were my
shoes not done I would go in for buffaloes too.

A man from the upper part of Tanganyika gives the same account of the
river from Rusisi that Burton and Speke received when they went to its
mouth. He says that the water of the Lake goes up some distance, but
is met by Rusisi water, and driven back thereby. The Lake water, he
adds, finds an exit northwards and eastwards by several small rivers
which would admit small canoes only. They pour into Lake
Chowambé--probably that discovered by Mr. Baker. This Chowambé is in
Hundi, the country of cannibals, but the most enlightened informants