as to be incapable of
giving a true verdict in matters of taste.

[It is necessary to explain that Livingstone knew of an Arab
settlement on the western shore of the Lake, and that he hoped to
induce the chief man Jumbe to give him a passage to the other side.]

_10th August, 1866._--I sent Seyed Majid's letter up to Jumbe, but the
messenger met some coast Arabs at the Loangwa, which may be seven
miles from this, and they came back with him, haggling a deal about
the fare, and then went off, saying that they would bring the dhow
here for us. Finding that they did not come, I sent Musa, who brought
back word that they had taken the dhow away over to Jumbe at Kotakota,
or, as they pronounce it, Ngotagota. Very few of the coast Arabs can
read; in words they are very polite, but truthfulness seems very
little regarded. I am resting myself and people--working up journal,
lunars, and altitudes--but will either move south or go to the Arabs
towards the north soon.

Mokalaose's fears of the Waiyau will make him welcome Jumbe here, and
then the Arab will some day have an opportunity of scattering his
people as he has done those at Kotakota. He has made Losewa too hot
for himself. When the people there were carried off by Mataka's
people, Jumbe seized their stores of grain, and now has no post to
which he can go there. The Loangwa Arabs give an awful account of
Jumbe's murders and selling the people, but one cannot take it all in;
at the mildest it must have been bad. This is all they ever do; they
cannot form a state or independent kingdom: slavery and the
slave-trade are insuperable obstacles to any permanence inland; slaves
can escape so easily, all therefore that the Arabs do is to collect as
much money as they can by hook and by crook, and then leave the
country.

We notice a bird called namtambwe, which sings very nicely with a
strong voice after dark here at the Misinje confluence.

_11th August, 1866._--Two headmen came down country from villages
where we slept, bringing us food, and asking how we are treated; they
advise our going south to Mukate's, where the Lake is narrow.

_12th-14th August, 1866._--Map making; but my energies were sorely
taxed by the lazy sepoys, and I was usually quite tired out at night.
Some men have come down from Mataka's, and report the arrival of an
Englishman with cattle for me, "he has two eyes behind as well as two
in front:" this is enough of news for awhile!

Mokalaose has his l