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them. As I was not strong enough to force my way, I returned once more to Taveita and busied myself with collecting in the vicinity.

I also received a deputation of Marañu and Rombo people, who came to make peace after our skirmish of the week before. They declared it had arisen through a misapprehension of my intentions. They now feared that having offended me I might bewitch their land from a distance, and wished to exchange presents, because I was a powerful magician, who turned aside the bullets and spears of his enemies. I laughed at all pretensions to supernatural power, but tried to explain that it was always silly to quarrel with white men, who must get the better of any struggle, not because they practised witchcraft, but because they had better guns than black men and knew how to use them. I was glad to hear that no lives were lost, and would willingly make friends. Accordingly I accepted a small bullock they had brought and gave them in return gay cloths and bags of beads with which they retreated joyfully, extolling the power and generosity of the white man, who never made slaves.

CHAPTER XV.

LAKE JIPE AND THE ROAD TO GONJA.

THE time was now approaching when I should be obliged to leave Taveita and return to the coast.

My six months on Kilima-njaro were coming to an end, and the funds for the expedition also. Unless more money were granted me I should have to discharge my porters, pay their wages, wind up my affairs, and return to England, for living in Central Africa is no more possible without money or money's worth than it is elsewhere. Nevertheless, I could not bear to think I was quitting the country, and felt so hopeful and convinced that help in some shape or form would await me in Zanzibar, and that in a few weeks I should be back in Taveita with renewed zeal for my work, that I did not like to abandon my comfortable and well-ordered settlement to the wild beasts and white ants, especially as the ground it was built on was my own, purchased from the natives of Taveita. Therefore, after a little deliberation, finding, moreover, that I had many goods and implements of husbandry which I could neither carry to the coast, for want of porters, nor bring myself to throw away; and disliking also to abandon my goats, fowls, ducks, pigeons, and tame ostriches, I finally decided to leave four men in charge of the settlement, who should

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await my return during three months, and if I did not then arrive, pack up as many of the things as they could carry, and accompany one of the Swahili caravans returning to the coast.

These and other preparations made, I took a most reluctant farewell of my pretty town, and also of the affectionate and friendly Wa-taveita, who entreated me to return very soon and dwell amongst them. I then made a short march of four hours to the northern corner of Lake Jipé, and camped out there, remaining a few days in the vicinity of this piece of water in order to observe the denizens of its banks. Lake Jipé is in reality a shallow backwater of the Lumi river, which afterwards becomes the Ruvu, and enters the Indian Ocean at Pangani. It is, in short, a tiny edition of the Albert Nyanza, about twelve miles long by three to four broad. On the southern bank the mountains of Ugweno rise grandly to heights of 6000 and 7000 feet, contrasting markedly with the opposite shore, whereon we were encamped, which is a flat plain, but little raised above the lake.

Ugweno is a continuation of the long chain of high mountains which border the northern aspect of the Ruvu valley, starting with Usambara on the coast and continuing through the Pare and Ugweno range to the base of Kilima-njaro. The countries of Ugweno and Usanga (a district lying towards Pare) are rich in iron ore, which is smelted by the Bantu inhabitants -Wa-gweno and Wa-sanga-and sold to the Čaga smiths in the shape of pig-iron. The Wa-gweno seem anciently a division of the Čaga tribes, and their language is much the same. The country they live in, being healthy and well supplied with water and very

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