made a terrible din, but we endured it with
saintly meekness and the fortitude o f stoics—
for a period. W e bore the storm o f entreaties
mixed with rude menaces until instinct warned
me that it was becoming dangerous. I then delivered
some instructions tq the boat’s crew, and, •
nodding to the shore, affected to surrender with
an indifferent grace. T h e y became suddenly
silent. W e lifted the stone anchor, and to o k
to our oars, steering to the broken water, ruffled
b y the nor’-wester, beyond the shelter o f
the island, convoyed b y the s ix canoes. We
accompanied them some hundreds o f yards, and
then, suddenly hoisting sail, swept b y them like
an arrow. W e preferred the prospect o f the
lone watery expanse to the company o f the
perverse inebriates o f Ugamba.-
W e continued sailing for half an hour, and as
it was then near sunset, dropped anchor in 75
feet o f water. T h e wind, which had swept in
strong gusts from the north-west, suddenly fell,
for in the north-east the aspect o f the s k y had
long been threatening. Clouds surged up in
thick masses from that direction, and cast a
gloom over the wood-clothed slopes and crests
o f Usuguru, which became almost as black as
a velvet pall, while the lake grew as quiet as
though vitrified into glass. Soon the piled-up
cloud-mass g rew ja g g ed , and a portentous zigzag
line o f deep sable hue ran through its centre,
rMarch JS, 187s.] A HEAVY THUNDERSTORM. 223
L Ngevi. J
from which the storm seemed to issue. I requested
the crew to come farther aft, and, fastening
a double rope to the stone anchor, prepared
every mug and baler for the rain with which
we were threatened. T he wind then fell, as
though from above, upon our bowed heads with
an overpowering force, striving against the resistance
which it met, as i f it would bear us
down to the bottom o f the lake , and then, repelled
b y the face o f the water, it brushed it
into millions o f tiny ripples. T h e temperature
fell to 62° Fahr., and with this sudden cold
down dropped a severe shower o f hailstones o f
great size, which pelted us with great force,
and made our teeth chatter. A fte r this the rain
fell in sheets, while the lightning blazed, preceding
the most dreadful thunder-claps I remember
to have ever heard.
T he rain, indeed, fell in such quantities that
it required two men for each section to keep
the boat sufficiently buoyant to ride the crest
o f the waves. T h e crew cried out that the
boat was sinking-—that, if the rain continued
in such volume, nothing could save us'. In reply,
I only urged them to bale her out faster.
T he sable mass o f Usuguru— as I observed
b y the bars o f intense light which the lightning
flashed almost every second— was still in front,
and I knew, therefore, that we were not being
swept v e ry fast to sea. Our energies were wholly