Our goods were all out in the street, bound on the pack-saddles, so at
night we took the ordinary precaution of setting a guard. This excited
our dignitary, and after dark all his men were again mustered with
matches lighted. I took no notice of him, and after he had spent a
good deal of talk, which we could hear, he called Musa and asked what
I meant. The explanations of Musa had the effect of sending him to
bed, and in the morning, when I learned how much I had most
unintentionally disturbed him, I told him that I was sorry, but it did
not occur to me to tell him about an ordinary precaution against
thieves. He thought he had given me a crushing reply when he said with
vehemence, "But there are no thieves here." I did not know till
afterwards that he and others had done me an ill turn in saying that
no carriers could be hired from the independent tribes adjacent. They
are low-coast Arabs, three-quarters African, and, as usual, possess
the bad without the good qualities of both parents. Many of them came
and begged brandy, and laughed when they remarked that they could
drink it in secret but not openly; they have not, however, introduced
it as an article of trade, as we Christians have done on the West
Coast.

_6th April, 1866._--We made a short march round to the south-west side
of the Lake, and spent the night at a village in that direction. There
are six villages dotted round the inner harbour, and the population
may amount to 250 or 300 souls--coast Arabs and their slaves; the
southern portion of the harbour is deep, from ten to fourteen fathoms,
but the north-western part is shoal and rocky. Very little is done in
the way of trade; some sorghum, sem-sem seed, gum-copal, and orchilla
weed, constitute the commerce of the port: I saw two Banian traders
settled here.