which the village was built, we saw a sight
which froze the blood—the body of a poor old
man, in a decomposed state, with a broad spear-
wound in the back, and near it much dried
blood. He had probably been dead five or
six days. «
A few yards farther, we saw the decapitated
corpse of another man, and 10 feet from it, in
a furrow or water channel, the bodies of three
men and a woman, one of them dislimbed.
We arrived before the village. The defences
were broken down and burnt. About fifty huts
still stood unharmed by fire, but all the others
were consumed. A few scorched banana stalks
stood as a witness of the fury of the conflagration.
But despite the black ruin and the charred
embers which so plentifully strewed the ground,
evidences were clear that flight had been hasty
and compulsory, for all the articles that constitute
the furniture of African families lay
scattered in such numbers around us that an
African museum might have been completely
stocked. Stools, mats, spears, drinking-vessels,
cooking-pots of all sizes, walking-staffs, war-
clubs, baskets, trenchers, wooden basins, scoops,
&c. There were also abundant proofs that this
ruin was recent; a few wood-rails still smoked,
the hearths were still warm, the dead were not
putrefied. A coal-black cat made a dash from
one of the houses yet standing, and the sudden
motion startled us all in this place of death
and vengeance.
Fonda, the chief of this village, had no doubt
given some provocation to this unknown enemy.
Para thought the enemy must have been the
robbers of Ndereh, for the condition of the
village bore signs of superior energy in the
attack. And yet it had been constructed with
a view to secure immunity from the fate which
generally overtakes weak communities in Africa
in the neighbourhood of ferocious and war-loving
tribes. A wide ditch— in some parts 10 feet
deep—-and a strong palisade, with an earthwork,
surrounded the settlement. The lake was close
by to supply water, the country near it was
open, and the sharpshooters’ nest-like towers
commanded a wide view. From some thirty
bleached skulls arranged before Ponda’s own
house we argued that he did not himself fail to
proceed to the same extremes which his enemies
had now adopted to his utter ruin. It is the
same story throughout Africa.
We resumed our voyage for the mouth of
the Rugufu river. The shore between Kiwesa
and the river is comparatively low. The waves
have so beaten and shaken the low red bluffs
and soft ferruginous clay that numerous landslips
are constantly occurring. The débris are then
vigorously pounded and crushed by the surf,
and at length they are spread out into a narrow
D2