A large quantity of maize is cultivated at Chimsaka’s, at whose place we this day arrived.  We got a supply, but being among thieves, we thought it advisable to move on to the next place (Mtarika’s).  When starting, we found that fork, kettle, pot, and shot-pouch had been taken.  The thieves, I observed, kept up a succession of jokes with Chuma and Wikatani and when the latter was enjoying them, gaping to the sky, they were busy putting the things of which he had charge under their cloths!  I spoke to the chief, and he got the three first articles back for me.

A great deal if not all the lawlessness of this quarter is the result of the slave-trade, for the Arabs buy whoever is brought to them and in a country covered with forest as this is, kidnapping can be prosecuted with the greatest ease; elsewhere the people are honest, and have a regard for justice.

1st July, 1866.—­As we approach Mtarika’s place, the country becomes more mountainous and the land sloping for a mile down to the south bank of the Rovuma supports a large population.  Some were making new gardens by cutting down trees and piling the branches for burning; others had stored tip large quantities of grain and were moving it to a new locality, but they were all so well supplied with calico (Merikano) that they would not look at ours:  the market was in fact glutted by slavers from (Quiloa) Kilwa.  On asking why people were seen tied to trees to die as we had seen them, they gave the usual answer that the Arabs tie them thus and leave them to perish, because they are vexed, when the slaves can walk no further, that they have lost their money by them.  The path is almost strewed with slave-sticks, and though the people denied it, I suspect that they make a practice of following slave caravans and cutting off the sticks from those who fall out in the march, and thus stealing them.  By selling them again they get the quantities of cloth we see.  Some asked for gaudy prints, of which we had none, because we knew that the general taste of the Africans of the Interior is for strength rather than show in what they buy.

The Rovuma here is about 100 yards broad, and still keeps up its character of a rapid stream, with sandy banks and islands:  the latter are generally occupied, as being defensible when the river is in flood.

2nd July, 1866.—­We rested at Mtarika’s old place; and though we had to pay dearly with our best table-cloths[14] for it, we got as much as made one meal a day.  At the same dear rate we could give occasionally only two ears of maize to each man; and if the sepoys got their comrades’ corn into their hands, they eat it without shame.  We had to bear a vast amount of staring, for the people, who are Waiyau, have a great deal of curiosity, and are occasionally rather rude.  They have all heard of our wish to stop the slave-trade, and are rather taken aback when told that by selling they are part and part guilty of the mortality of which we had been