Enabled them to procure good and faithful freemen; but if they
contented themselves, upon the receipt of a letter from Dr.
Livingstone, with sending to Ludha Damji for men, it is no longer
a matter of wonder that dishonest and incapable slaves were sent
forward. It is no new fact that the Doctor has discovered when
he states that a negro freeman is a hundred times more capable
and trustworthy than a slave. Centuries ago Eumaeus, the herdsman,
said to Ulysses:
Jove fixed it certain, that whatever day
Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away.
We passed several happy days at Ujiji, and it was time we were now
preparing for our cruise on the Tanganika. Livingstone was
improving every day under the different diet which my cook furnished
him. I could give him no such suppers as that which Jupiter and
Mercury received at the cottage of Baucis and Philemon. We had no
berries of chaste Minerva, pickled cherries, endive, radishes,
dried figs, dates, fragrant apples, and grapes; but we had cheese,
and butter which I made myself, new-laid eggs, chickens, roast
mutton, fish from the lake, rich curds and cream, wine from the
Guinea-palm, egg-plants, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, pea-nuts,
and beans, white honey from Ukaranga, luscious singwe - a plum-like
fruit - from the forests of Ujiji, and corn scones and dampers,
in place of wheaten bread.
During the noontide heats we sat under our veranda discussing our
various projects, and in the early morning and evening we sought
the shores of the lake - promenading up and down the beach to breathe
the cool breezes which ruffled the surface of the water, and rolled
the unquiet surf far up on the smooth and whitened shore.
It was the dry season, and we had most lovely weather; the
temperature never was over 80 degrees in the shade.
The market-place overlooking the broad silver water afforded us
amusement and instruction. Representatives of most of the tribes
dwelling near the lake were daily found there. There were the
agricultural and pastoral Wajiji, with their flocks and herds;
there were the fishermen from Ukaranga and Kaole, from beyond
Bangwe, and even from Urundi, with their whitebait, which they
called dogara, the silurus, the perch, and other fish; there were
the palm-oil merchants, principally from Ujiji and Urundi, with
great five-gallon pots full of reddish oil, of the consistency of
butter; there were the salt merchants from the salt-plains of
Uvinza and Uhha; there were the ivory merchants from Uvira and
Usowa; there were the canoe-makers from Ugoma and Urundi; there
were the cheap-Jack pedlers from Zanzibar, selling flimsy prints,
and brokers exchanging blue mutunda beads for sami-sami, and
sungomazzi, and sofi. The sofi beads are like pieces of thick
clay-pipe stem about half an inch long, and are in great demand
here. Here were found Waguhha, Wamanyuema, Wagoma, Wavira,
Wasige, Warundi, Wajiji, Waha, Wavinza, Wasowa, Wangwana, Wakawendi,
Arabs, and Wasawahili, engaged in noisy chaffer and barter.
Bareheaded, and almost barebodied, the youths made love to the
dark-skinned and woolly-headed Phyllises, who knew not how to
blush at the ardent gaze of love, as their white sisters; old
matrons gossiped, as the old women do everywhere; the children
played, and laughed, and struggled, as children of our own lands;
and the old men, leaning on their spears or bows, were just as
garrulous in the Place de Ujiji as aged elders in other climes.
CHAPTER XIII. OUR CRUISE ON THE LAKE TANGANIKA -
EXPLORATION OF THE NORTH-END OF THE LAKE -
THE RUSIZI IS DISCOVERED TO ENTER INTO THE LAKE -
RETURN TO UJIJI.
"I distinctly deny that `any misleading by my instructions
from the Royal Geographical Society as to the position of the
White Nile' made me unconscious of the vast importance of
ascertaining the direction of the Rusizi River. The fact is,
we did our best to reach it, and we failed." - Burton's Zanzibar.
"The universal testimony of the natives to the Rusizi River
being an influent is the most conclusive argument that it does
run out of the lake." - Speke.
"I therefore claim for Lake Tanganika the honour of being the
SOUTHERNMOST RESERVOIR OF THE NILE, until some more positive
evidence, by actual observation, shall otherwise determine it." -
Findlay, R.G.S.
Had Livingstone and myself, after making up our minds to visit
the northern head of the Lake Tanganika, been compelled by the
absurd demands or fears of a crew of Wajiji to return to
Unyanyembe without having resolved the problem of the Rusizi River,
we had surely deserved to be greeted by everybody at home with a
universal giggling and cackling. But Capt. Burton's failure to
settle it, by engaging Wajiji, and that ridiculous savage chief
Kannena, had warned us of the negative assistance we could expect
from such people for the solution of a geographical problem. We
had enough good sailors with us, who were entirely under our
commands. Could we but procure the loan of a canoe, we thought
all might be well.
Upon application to Sayd bin Majid, he at once generously
permitted us to use his canoe for any service for which we might
require it. After engaging two Wajiji guides at two doti each,
we prepared to sail from the port of Ujiji, in about a week or
so after my entrance into Ujiji.
I have already stated how it was that the Doctor and I undertook
the exploration of the northern half of the Tanganika and the River
Rusizi, about which so much had been said and written.
Before embarking on this enterprise, Dr. Livingstone had not
definitely made up his mind which course he should take, as his
position was truly deplorable.
