therefore neither by word nor look did we betray
any antipathy.
We gave them gifts of meat at their own request.
The tobacco gourd passed round in their
polluted, crimeful hands, and we grasped their
hands in token of amity— and parted.
On the 17th June we continued our voyage
from Urimba towards Kungwe cape, one of the
projecting spurs from the Kungwe mountains,
and in the evening camped on Bongo Island, a
few miles south-west from Ndereh, the robbers’
village. We were visited in the night by about
sixty of them armed with muskets. Though it
was an unusual hour, and an unseasonable one
for receiving visitors, we avoided trouble, and
by parting with cloth and exhausting the powers
of suavity, we happily avoided a rupture with
the wild and bloody men of Ndereh, and before
dawn stole away unperceived on our journey.
The peaks of Kungwe are probably from 2500
to 3000 feet above the lake. They are not only
interesting from their singular appearance, but
also as being a refuge for the last remaining
families of the aborigines of Kawendi. On the
topmost and most inaccessible heights dwells
the remnant of the once powerful nation which
in old times-—so tradition relates-—overran Uhha
and Uvinza, and were a terror to the Wakala-
ganza. They cultivate the slopes of their strongholds,
which amply repay them for their labour.
Fuel is found in the gorges between the peaks,
and means of defence are at hand in the huge
rocks which they have piled up ready to repel
the daring intruder. Their elders retain the traditions
of the race whence they sprang; and in
their charge are the Lares and Penates of old
Kawendi— the Muzimu. In the home of the
eagles they find a precarious existence, as a
seed to' reproduce another nation, or as a short
respite before complete extermination.
The best view of this interesting clump of
mountain heights is to be had off the mouth of
the torrent Luwulungu.
From Cape Kungwe south, the coast as far
as Ulambula consists of a lofty mountain front,
pierced by several deep and most picturesque
inlets, gorges, ravines, and rifts. Into these pours
the Luwulungu, rushing along a steep, stony bed,
from the chasms and defiles overshadowed by
the tall peaks of Kungwe— and the Lubugwe,
emptying its waters into a pretty cove penetrating
to the very heart of the mountain wall. At
an angle of 450 this mountain wall rises up to
the height of 2000 feet, clothed from base to
summit with the verdure of cane, wild grasses,
and tall straight trees with silvery stems. Then
next comes the Kasuma inlet, and here, straight
before our eyes, is seen a river dropping, in a
succession of falls, from the lofty summit, into
shadowy depths of branching tamarinds, acacias,