soon as the Manyuema learn that guns are limited in their power of
killing, and especially in the hands of slaves, who cannot shoot, but
only make a noise. These Suaheli are the most cruel and bloodthirsty
missionaries in existence, and withal so impure in talk and acts,
spreading disease everywhere. The Lord sees it.

_28th December, 1870._--Moenembegg, the most intelligent of the two sons
of Moenékuss, in power, told us that a man was killed and eaten a few
miles from this yesterday: hunger was the reason assigned. On speaking
of tainted meat, he said that the Manyuema put meat in water for two
days to make it putrid and smell high. The love of high meat is the only
reason I know for their cannibalism, but the practice is now hidden on
account of the disgust that the traders expressed against open
man-eating when they first arrived.

Lightning was very near us last night. The Manyuema say that when it is
so loud fishes of large size fall with it, an opinion shared by the
Arabs, but the large fish is really the _Clarias Capensis_ of Smith, and
it is often seen migrating in single file along the wet grass for miles:
it is probably this that the Manyuema think falls from the lightning.

The strangest disease I have seen in this country seems really to be
broken-heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and
made slaves. My attention was drawn to it when the elder brother of Syde
bin Habib was killed in Rua by a night attack, from a spear being
pitched through his tent into his side. Syde then vowed vengeance for
the blood of his brother, and assaulted all he could find, killing the
elders, and making the young men captives. He had secured a very large
number, and they endured the chains until they saw the broad River
Lualaba roll between them and their free homes; they then lost heart.