y clouds here and there.

_7th June, 1872._--Sultan bin Ali called. He says that the path by Fipa
is the best, it has plenty of game, and people are friendly.[22] By
going to Amran I should get into the vicinity of Merere, and possibly be
detained, as the country is in a state of war. The Beluch would
naturally wish to make a good thing of me, as he did of Speke. I gave
him a cloth and arranged the Sungomaze beads, but the box and beads
weigh 140 lbs., or two men's loads. I visited Lewale. Heard of Baker
going to Unyoro Water, Lake Albert. Lewale praises the road by
Moeneyungo and Merere, and says he will give a guide, but he never went
that way.

_10th June, 1872._--Othman, our guide from Ujiji hither, called to-day,
and says positively that the way by Fipa is decidedly the shortest and
easiest: there is plenty of game, and the people are all friendly. He
reports that Mirambo's headman, Merungwe, was assaulted and killed, and
all his food, cattle, and grain used. Mirambo remains alone. He has, it
seems, inspired terror in the Arab and Banyamwezi mind by his charms,
and he will probably be allowed to retreat north by flight, and the war
for a season close; if so, we shall get plenty of Banyamwezi pagazi, and
be off, for which I earnestly long and pray.

_13th June, 1872._--Sangara, one of Mr. Stanley's men, returned from
Bagamoio, and reports that my caravan is at Ugogo. He arrived to-day,
and reports that Stanley and the American Consul acted like good
fellows, and soon got a party of over fifty off, as he heard while at
Bagamoio, and he left. The main body, he thinks, are in Ugogo. Hecame
on with the news, but the letters were not delivered to him. I do most
fervently thank the good Lord of all for His kindness to me through
these gentlemen. The men will come here about the end of this month.
Bombay happily pleaded sickness as an excuse for not re-engaging, as
several others have done. He saw that I got a clear view of his
failings, and he could not hope to hoodwink me.

After Sangara came, I went over to Kukuru to see what the Lewale had
received, but he was absent at Tabora. A great deal of shouting, firing
of guns, and circumgyration by the men who had come from the war just
outside the stockade of Nkisiwa (which is surrounded by a hedge of dark
euphorbia and stands in a level hollow) was going on as we descended the
gentle slope towards it. Two heads had been put up as trophies in the
village, and it was asser