_14th April, 1871._--Kahembé came over, and promises to bring a canoe;
but he is not to be trusted; he presented Abed with two slaves, and is
full of fair promises about the canoe, which he sees I am anxious to
get. They all think that my buying a canoe means carrying war to the
left bank; and now my Banian slaves encourage the idea: "He does not
wish slaves nor ivory," say they, "but a canoe, in order to kill
Manyuema." Need it be wondered at that people, who had never heard of
strangers or white men before I popped down among them, believed the
slander? The slaves were aided in propagating the false accusation by
the half-caste Ujijian slaves at the camp. Hassani fed them every day;
and, seeing that he was a bigoted Moslem, they equalled him in prayers
in his sitting-place seven or eight times a day! They were adepts at
lying, and the first Manyuema words they learned were used to propagate
falsehood.

I have been writing part of a despatch, in case of meeting people from
the French settlement on the Gaboon at Loéki, but the canoe affair is
slow and tedious: the people think only of war: they are a bloody-minded
race.

_15th April, 1871._--The Manyuema tribe, called Bagenya, occupy the left
bank, opposite Nyañgwé. A spring of brine rises in the bed of a river,
named Lofubu, and this the Bayenga inspissate by boiling, and sell the
salt at market. The Lomamé is about ten days west of Lualaba, and very
large; the confluence of Lomamé, or Loéki, is about six days down below
Nyañgwé by canoe; the river Nyanzé is still less distant.

_16th April, 1871._--On the Nyanzé stands the principal town and market
of the chief, Zurampela. Rashid visited him, and got two slaves on
promising to bring a war-party from Abed against Chipangé, who by