The country in which we now found ourselves, Mugihewa, is situated in the delta of the Rusizi River.  It is an extremely flat country, the highest part of which is not ten feet above the lake, with numerous depressions in it overgrown with the rankest of matete-grass and the tallest of papyrus, and pond-like hollows, filled with stagnant water, which emit malaria wholesale.  Large herds of cattle are reared on it; for where the ground is not covered with marshy plants it produces rich, sweet grass.  The sheep and goats, especially the former, are always in good condition; and though they are not to be compared with English or American sheep, they are the finest I have seen in Africa.  Numerous villages are seen on this land because the intervening spaces are not occupied with the rank and luxuriant jungle common in other parts of Africa.  Were it not for the Euphorbia kolquall of Abyssinia—­which some chief has caused to be planted as a defence round the villages—­ one might see from one end of Mugihewa to the other.  The waters along the head of the lake, from the western to the eastern shores, swarm with crocodiles.  From the banks, I counted ten heads of crocodiles, and the Rusizi, we were told, was full of them.

Ruhinga, who came to see us soon after we had taken up our quarters in his village, was a most amiable man, who always contrived to see something that excited his risibility; though older by five or six years perhaps—­he said he was a hundred years old—­than Mukamba, he was not half so dignified, nor regarded with so much admiration by his people as his younger brother.  Ruhinga had a better knowledge, however, of the country than Mukamba, and an admirable memory, and was able to impart his knowledge of the country intelligently.  After he had done the honours as chief to us—­ presented us with an ox and a sheep, milk and honey—­we were not backward in endeavouring to elicit as much information as possible out of him.

The summary of the information derived from Ruhinga may be stated as follows: 

The country bordering the head of the lake from Urundi proper, on the eastern shore, to Uvira on the western, is divided into the following districts:  1st.  Mugere, governed by Mukamba, through which issued into the lake the small rivers of Mugere and Mpanda. 2nd.  Mukanigi, governed by Warumashanya, which occupied the whole of the north-eastern head of the lake, through which issued into the lake the small rivers of Karindwa and Mugera wa Kanigi. 3rd.  On the eastern half of the district, at the head of the lake, was Usumbura, governed by Simveh, ally and friend of Warumashanya, extending to the eastern bank of the Rusizi. 4th.  Commencing from the western bank of the Rusizi, to the extreme north-western head of the lake, was Mugihewa—­Ruhinga’s country. 5th.  From Uvira on the west, running north past Mugihewa, and overlapping it on the north side as far as the hills of Chamati, was Ruwenga, also a country governed by Mukamba.  Beyond Ruwenga,