there, which protected them from the bite of these terrible-
reptiles.
Leaving the vessel opposite Chibisa’s village, Drs. Livingstone
and Kirk and a number of the Makololo started on foot
for Lake Shirwa. They travelled in a northerly direction
over a mountainous country. The people were far from
being well-disposed to them, and some of their guides tried
to mislead them, and could not be trusted. Masakasa, a Makololo
headman, overheard some remarks, which satisfied him
that the guide was leading them into trouble. He was quiet
till they reached a lonely spot, when he came up to Doctor
Livingstone, and said, “ That fellow is bad, he is taking us into
mischief; my spear is sharp, and there is no one here; shall I
cast him into the long grass?” Had the Doctor given the
slightest token of assent, or even kept silence, never more
would any one have been led by that guide, for in a twinkling
he would have been where “ the wicked cease from
troubling.” I t was afterwards found that in this case there
was no treachery at a ll; but a want of knowledge on their
part of the language, and of the country. They asked to be
led to “ Nyanja Mukulu,” or Great Lake, meaning, by this,
Lake Shirwa; and the guide took them round a terribly rough
piece of mountainous country, gradually edging away towards
a long marsh, which from the numbers of those animals we'
had seen there we had called the Elephant Marsh, but which
was really the place known to him by the name “ Nyanja
Mukulu,” or Great Lake. Nyanja or Nyanza means, generally,
a marsh, lake, river, or even a mere rivulet.
The party pushed on at last without guides, or only
with crazy ones; for,, oddly enough, they were often
under great obligations to the madmen of the different
villages : one of these honoured them, as they slept
in the open air, by dancing and singing at their feet the
whole night. These poor fellows sympathized with the explorers,
probably in the belief that they belonged to their own
class ; and, uninfluenced by the general opinion of their
countrymen, they really pitied, and took kindly to the
strangers, and often guided them faithfully from place to
place, when no sane man could be hired for love or
money.
The bearing of the Manganja at this time was very independent
; a striking contrast to the cringing attitude they
afterwards assumed, when the cruel scourge of slave-hunting
passed over their country. Signals were given from the
different villages by means of drums, “and notes of defiance
and intimidation were sounded in the travellers’ ears by . day ;
and occasionally they were kept awake the whole night, in
expectation of an instant attack. Drs. Livingstone and
Kirk were desirous that nothing should occur to make the
natives regard them as enemies; Masakasa, on the other
hand, was anxious to show what ' he could do in the way
of fighting thèm.
The perseverance of th e . party was finally crowned with
success'; for on the 18th. of April they discovered Lake
Shirwa, a considerable body of bitter water, containing
leeches, fish, crocodiles, and hippopotami. From having
probably no outlet, the water is slightly brackish, and it
appears to be deep, with islands like hills rising out of it.
Their point of view was at the base of Mount Pirimiti or
Mopeu-peu, on its S.S.W. side. Thence the prospect northwards
ended in a sea horizon with two . small islands in the
distance—à larger one, resembling a hill-top and covered
with trees, rose more in the foreground. Ranges of hills
appeared .on the east ; and ón the west stood Mount Ckikala,