[The despatch breaks off at this point.  The year concludes with health impaired.  As time goes on we shall see how ominous the conviction was which made him dread the swamps of Bangweolo.]

28-31st December, 1867.—­We came on to the rivulet Chirongo, and then to the Kabukwa, where I was taken ill.  Heavy rains kept the convoy back.  I have had nothing but coarsely-ground sorghum meal for some time back, and am weak; I used to be the first in the line of march, and am now the last; Mohamad presented a meal of finely-ground porridge and a fowl, and I immediately felt the difference, though I was not grumbling at my coarse dishes.  It is well that I did not go to Bangweolo Lake, for it is now very unhealthy to the natives, and I fear that without medicine continual wettings by fording rivulets might have knocked me up altogether.  As I have mentioned, the people suffer greatly from swelled thyroid gland or Derbyshire neck and Elephantiasis scroti.

1st January, 1868.—­Almighty Father, forgive the sins of the past year for Thy Son’s sake.  Help me to be more profitable during this year.  If I am to die this year prepare me for it.

* * * * *

I bought five hoes at two or three yards of calico each:  they are 13-1/2 inches by 6-1/2 inches; many are made in Casembe’s country, and this is the last place we can find them:  when we come into Buire we can purchase a good goat for one; one of my goats died and the other dried up.  I long for others, for milk is the most strengthening food I can get.

My guide to Moero came to-day, and I visited the Lake several times, so as to get a good idea of its size.  The first fifteen miles in the north are from twelve or more to thirty-three miles broad.  The great mass of the Rua Mountains confines it.  Thus in a clear day a lower range is seen continued from the high point of the first mass away to the west south-west, this ends, and sea horizon is alone visible away to the south and west; from the height we viewed it at, the width must be over forty, perhaps sixty miles.  A large island, called Kirwa,[59] is situated between the Mandapala and Kabukwa Rivers, but nearest to the other shore.  The natives never attempt to cross any part of the Lake south of this Kirwa.  Land could not be seen with a good glass on the clearest day we had.  I can understand why the natives pronounced Moero to be larger than Tanganyika:  in the last named they see the land always on both sides; it is like a vast trough flanked with highlands, but at Moero nothing but sea horizon can be seen when one looks south-west of the Rua Mountains.