102 
THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT. 
fierce waves, the Lady Alice bounding forward like a wild courser. It lashed 
the waters into spray and foam, and hurled them over the devoted crew and 
boat. With a mere rag presented to the gale, we drove unresistingly along. 
Strange islets in the neighbourhood of Mashakka became then objects of terror 
to us, but we passed them in safety and saw the grey hills of Magu far in 
front of us. Ihe boatmen cowered to windward ; Saramba had collapsed in 
terror, and had resignedly covered his moppy head with his loin-cloth. Zaidi 
Mganda, the steersman, and myself were the only persons visible above the 
gunwale, and our united strengths were required to guide the boat over the 
raging sea. At 2 p.m. we came in view of the Shimeeyu river, and, steering 
close to the little island of Natwari, swept round to leeward, and through a 
calm water made our way into harbour, opiwsite the entrance to the river.° 
The next day was beautiful. The wild waters of yesterday were calm as 
those of a pond. The bold hills of Magu, with all their sere and treeless 
outlines, stood out in fine relief. Opposite them, at about 1300 yards distant, 
were the brush-covered tops of the Mazanza heights ; while between them lay 
glittering the broad and noble creek which receives the tribute flood of the 
Shimeeyu, the extreme southern reach of Nile waters. The total length of 
the course of this river, as laid out on the chart, is 300 miles, which gives the 
course of the Nile a length of 4200 miles : thus making it the second longest 
river in the world. The creek extends to a considerable distance, and then 
contracts to a width of about 400 yards, through which the Monangah, after 
uniting with the Luwamberri and the Duma rivers, discharges its brown 
waters, under the name of the Shimeeyu, into the lake. 
After an examination of these features, we continued our journey along the 
coast of Mazanza, which forms the eastern shore of the bay of Shimeeyu, 
¡massing by the boldly rising and wooded hills of Mannssa. At 4 p.m. we 
attempted to land in a small cove, but were driven away by a multitude of 
audacious hippopotami, who rushed towards us open-mouthed. Perceiving 
that they were too numerous and bold for us, wo were compelled to drop our 
stone anchors in 40 feet of water, about two miles from shore. 
On the 11th of March, after rowing nearly the whole day against a head-wind, 
we arrived at the eastern end of Speke Gulf, which hero narrows to about 
seven miles. On the southern side Manassa extends from Mazanza, its coast 
line marked by an almost unbroken ridge about two miles inland, varied hero 
and there by rounded knolls and hills, from whose base there is a gradual 
slope covered with woods down to the water’s edge. The eastern end of the 
gulf is closed by the land of the Wirigedi or, as Saramba called tliem, the 
Wajika. At the north-eastern end begins Shahshi, consisting of a group of 
sterile hills, which, as wo proceed west along the north side of the gulf, sink 
down into a naked plain. The Ruana river empties itself into the head of the 
gulf by two narrow mouths through a low wooded .shore. 
On the 12 th we continued to coast along Shahshi’s low, bare plain, mar*