reptilian museum at last. It is at such times that one has time to look about on shore; to visit neighbouring villages, or, if game is plentiful, to vary the eternal round of fowls, goats, and preserved meat. I fear that the anticipations of sportsmen are seldom realized. on these journeys. It is utterly impossible to combine the two things; one cannot spare the necessary time either on the march or whilst sailing. If you stray from the line in the former instance you are quickly left behind (unless a guide accompanies you), and are lost, to the great vexation of those who have to find you by sending tired and weary men in all directions when the night's resting-place is reached; or, in the latter case, what with anchoring, lowering boats, and your men straying about to find villages which will supply them with gossip, " mowa," tobacco, and fowls, the day's work is spoilt. To hunt requires a halt of two or three days in one spot, and then of course all comes to a standstill.

There used to be another powerful chief here named Marenga, but I was grieved to find my old friend had been at war with M'Ponda and had got the worst of it. He fled to the hill

country of the north-west; but when opposite Pimba an Ajawa chief, M'Pimba, attacked him and carried off all his wives and cattle. The poor old man did not long survive his losses, and we heard that his son was chief in his stead.

Crossing that arm of the Lake which on the chart resembles the heel of a boot, we coasted along an extraordinary fringe of reeds which seemed interminable, and was the stronghold of millions of mosquitoes. When a clear place appeared, the sea was too high to attempt landing, and so we made for the island of M'Pimba, which we found nothing but a heap of rock. Holding on our course we shortly after caught sight of an Arab dhow standing across the Lake. Our meeting was to some extent an embarrassment. Before we left England the Committee of the Scotch Free Church had placed in my hands written instructions, amongst which was a clause to the effect that under no circumstances were we to bring about hostilities, and it was part of my duty to see this dictum carried out. What if the vessel should prove full of slaves-for I well knew her ordinary calling-were we to leave them to their doom? But in less time

than it would take to argue the problem out, the Ilala had bounced up alongside the dhow, for the master-no new hand at such worklowered his sail before he was hailed and as soon as he saw our flag. This time there were no slaves, only a native crew and three Arabs. The dismay and astonishment caused by our presence on the Lake was worth beholding in the looks of these men. The principal one spoke broken English, and had originally come from Zanzibar, where of course he had a pretty good insight into the opinion the British nation. holds respecting slave-trading transactions. We told him he was free to go, and great was his delight accordingly. To give him an idea of the Ilala's capabilities, I ran round him two or three times, and left him standing away to the eastward. The craft was badly built, of about fifteen tons burden, and with a large open hold for slaves. What has been done in shipbuilding by these men and their rough appliances surely can be done again; and I hope the time is coming when many small vessels will be engaged in lawful trade, built by the hands of our own countrymen on the spot.

On the 15th of October we crossed over the

Lake to the east side, as I was anxious to call at a settlement of Arabs near the River Loangwa, which I saw when last here. We anchored for the night opposite a large village which we sighted in the moonlight, and next morning had some talk with a few Arabs that were hanging about. But they did not tell us that the settlement we were in quest of no longer existed: this we had to discover by-and-by for ourselves, and to our chagrin, for I had intended laying in a stock of rice, corn, etc., here. We ascertained that a powerful chief, Makanjira, had moved towards the Lake three years previously, shifting his quarters from near Mataka's town-I suppose on the principle that "two of a trade cannot agree. The two communities found their slave-trading propensities clash, and the upshot of it was that the Arabs were dispersed. About Makanjira, or Makanjila, for "1” and “r” are interchangeable amongst all these tribes, I shall have more to say presently.

It now became requisite to take steps for establishing ourselves permanently somewhere. I was anxious to give my companions a good general idea of the Lake and its main features. This I had now done, but all our eggs were in

one basket, and in the event of any mishap with all the members of the mission party on board, together with their stores and baggage, it would have been very serious-not that I anticipated anything of the kind. Still, Lake Nyassa is an inland sea, which possesses in a very marked degree the peculiarities of similar waters when surrounded by mountains. Livingstone called it the "Lake of Storms;" and, although there was a time when I questioned the justice of such a. name, I can now fully testify to the tremendous gales and fearful seas that are constantly to be met with when navigating it. As a lake I do not believe that it has any particular name in the native tongue; at all events, I could never ascertain that it had. Endless confusion has arisen, and will arise to the end of time, owing to the habit the natives have of speaking of any large piece of water in general terms as the

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Nyassa." Of course this will vary with different dialects. On the Zambesi that river is the "Nyanja;" here we had "Nyassa;" Speke and Grant had "Nyanza "for the Victoria Lake, and so forth. We speak of the "seaside" to whatever part of the coast we go. I dare say this must be confusing to foreigners, who at first