ten or more men, with two rattles in their hands.  The drummers beat furiously, and the rattlers kept time to the drums, two of them advancing and receding in a stooping posture, with rattles near the ground, as if doing the chief obeisance, but still keeping time with the others.  I declined to sit on the ground, and an enormous tusk was brought for me.  The chief saluted courteously.  He has a fat jolly face, and legs loaded with brass and copper leglets.  I mentioned our losses by the desertion of the Waiyau, but his power is merely nominal, and he could do nothing.  After talking awhile he came along with us to a group of cows, and pointed out one.  “That is yours,” said he.  The tusk on which I sat was sent after me too as being mine, because I had sat upon it.  He put on my cloth as token of acceptance, and sent two large baskets of sorghum to the hut afterwards, and then sent for one of the boys to pump him after dark.

[Illustration:  Chitapangwa’s Wives.]

1st February, 1867.—­We found a small party of black Arab slave-traders here from Bagamoio on the coast, and as the chief had behaved handsomely as I thought, I went this morning and gave him one of our best cloths; but when we were about to kill the cow, a man interfered and pointed out a smaller one.  I asked if this was by the orders of the chief.  The chief said that the man had lied, but I declined to take any cow at all if he did not give it willingly.

The slavers, the headman of whom was Magaru Mafupi, came and said that they were going off on the 2nd; (2nd February, 1867) but by payment I got them to remain a day, and was all day employed in writing despatches.

3rd February, 1867.—­Magaru Mafupi left this morning with a packet of letters, for which he is to get Rs. 10 at Zanzibar.[48] They came by a much shorter route than we followed, in fact, nearly due west or south-west; but not a soul would tell us of this way of coming into the country when we were at Zanzibar.  Bagamoio is only six hours north of Kurdary Harbour.  It is possible that the people of Zanzibar did not know of it themselves, as this is the first time they have come so far.  The route is full of villages and people who have plenty of goats, and very cheap.  They number fifteen stations, or sultans, as they call the chiefs, and will be at Bagamoio in two months:—­1.  Chasa; 2.  Lombe; 3.  Uchere; 4.  Nyamiro; 5.  Zonda; 6.  Zambi; 7.  Lioti; 8.  Merere; 9.  Kirangabana; 10.  Nkongozi; 11.  Sombogo; 12.  Sure; 13.  Lomolasenga; 14.  Kapass; 15, Chanze.  They are then in the country adjacent to Bagamoio.  Some of these places are two or three days apart from each other.

They came to three large rivers:  1.  Wembo; 2.  Luaha; 3.  Luvo; but I had not time to make further inquiries.  They had one of Speke’s companions to Tanganyika with them, named Janje, or Janja, who could imitate a trumpet by blowing into the palm of his hand.  I ordered another supply of cloth and beads, and I sent for a small quantity of coffee, sugar, candles, French preserved meats, a cheese in tin, six bottles of port-wine, quinine, calomel, and resin of jalap, to be sent to Ujiji.