until the canoe was safe in their hands. Then
it seemed as though their sullenness was conquered,
for presently five men and a chief approached,
who likewise, receiving presents of
shells and a few pieces of cloth, entered zealously
into the strangely formed compact of
peace, and sealed it by permitting themselves
to be inoculated with the blood of the Wa-
ngwana in small incisions made in their arms.
Every captive, every goat, and fowl was religiously
surrendered, while shouts of applause
from both parties rent the air.
It could not be expected, of course, that they
should feel at once like old friends after the
fury of the early morning, but sunset found some
dozens of men in our camp without arms in their
hands, responding as well as they were able to
our numerous queries about the geography of
the country. Our people also traversed the
southern end of the island with perfect confidence,
and neither side had cause to regret
having become friends.
Human skulls ornamented the village streets
of the island, while a great many thigh-bones
and ribs and vertebrae lay piled at a garbage
corner, bleached witnesses of their hideous
carnivorous tastes. Like the Waregga, the Asama
wore caps of lemur, monkey, otter, goat, red
buffalo and antelope skin, with long strips of fur
or the tails dropped behind. Palms, bananas,
cassava, red pepper, maize, aiid sugar-cane
flourished; their houses were large, though not
so neat as those at Vinya-Njara. Fish-nets and
baskets lay scattered around in abundance
while great bundles of iron and wooden spears
proved that the Asamas were as warlike as
they were industrious.
The islanders were not ungrateful, for they
supplied us, by order of the chief, with sufficient
bananas to settle our canoes deeply in the water,
which proved that, provided one were well able
to defend oneself, and were his superior in force,
even a cannibal could show that he was possessed
of human qualities.
On the 18th we resumed our voyage, gliding
down the stream that flowed between Asama
Island and the left bank. The river’s course
had continued a (magnetic) north-north-easterly
course ever since we had left the confluence of
the Leopold with the Livingstone, which caused
serious doubts in my mind for a time as to
whether my boiling-points might not be in error.
It certainly caused me to believe that Livingstone’s
hypothesis is correct after all, though
the great river itself, by its vast magnitude,
breadth, and depth, was a decided protest
against such a proposition.
At the foot of the Fifth Cataract, which fell
at the south end of Asama Island, the altitude
of the river was about 1630 feet above the ocean