VIEWS OF LAKE TANGANYIKA.
Burton considered the march from the Malagarazi River to Lake Tanganyika the worst part of his journey. It led through a perfect wilderness, with all the diversities of jungle, swamp, rugged hills, and rocky ravines swept by mountain torrents.
After much labor, Burton and his followers reached the lake. His first feeling was one of disappointment.
Having traveled through screens of lofty grass, which gradually thinned out into a scanty forest, he climbed a steep, stony hill, thinly covered with thorny trees. From the top of this hill he could see a faint streak of light below. This he judged was the lake. Seen through the veil of trees and the broad rays of sunshine, the lake seemed to be shrunken in its proportions.
As he advanced a few steps, the whole scene burst upon his view. He was filled with admiration, wonder, and delight at its beauty. To quote his words:—
"Nothing could be more beautiful, more picturesque, than the first view of Lake Tanganyika, as it lay in the lap of the mountains, basking in the gorgeous tropical sunshine. Below and beyond a short foreground of rugged and precipitous hill-fold, down which the footpath zigzags painfully, a narrow strip of emerald green, never sere, and marvelously fertile, shelves towards a ribbon of glistening sand, here bordered by sedgy rushes, there cleanly and clearly cut by the breaking wavelets.
"Farther in front stretched the waters, an expanse of the lightest and softest blue, in a breadth varying from thirty to thirty-five miles, and sprinkled by the crisp east wind into tiny crescents of sunny foam.
"The background is a high and broken wall of steel-colored mountain, here flecked and capped with pearly mist, there standing sharply penciled against the azure sky. Its yawning chasms, marked by a deep plum-color, fall towards dwarf hills of mold-like proportions, which apparently dip their feet in the wave.
"To the south, and opposite the long, low point behind which the Malagarazi River discharges the red loam suspended in its violent stream, lie the bluff headlands and capes of Uguha; and, as the eye dilates, it falls upon a cluster of outlying islets speckling a sea horizon.
"Villages, cultivated lands, the frequent canoes of the fishermen on the waters, and, on a nearer approach, the murmur of the waves breaking upon the shore, give something of variety, of movement, of life to the landscape, which, like all the fairest prospects in these regions, wants but a little of the neatness and finish of art,—mosques and kiosks, palaces and villas, gardens and orchards,—contrasting with the profuse lavishness and magnificence of nature, and diversifying the expanse of excessive vegetation, to rival, if not to excel, the most admired scenery of the classic regions.
"The riant shores of this vast crevasse appeared doubly beautiful to me after the silent and spectral mangrove creeks on the East African seaboard, and the melancholy, monotonous experience of desert and jungle scenery, tawny rock and sun-parched plain, or rank herbage and flats of black mire. Truly it was a revel for soul and sight."
In further accounts this same author describes the African canoe, which is simply a scooped-out log. In such a climate as that of Africa a canoe cracks, and for want of calking it often becomes so leaky as to require constant baling. The crew take turns in thus keeping the craft from sinking.
A canoe of this sort has neither masts nor sails. In place of a rudder there is an iron ring in the stern. The steering, however, is really done by the paddle. There are no oars, and the paddle, which takes the place of oars, is exceedingly clumsy.
The crew seat themselves on narrow benches, two sitting in a space scarcely large enough for one person. In the center of the canoe is a clear space about six feet long. This is used to store the cargo, passengers, cattle, slaves, and provisions.
In describing the natives Burton says: "The lakists are an almost amphibious race, excellent divers, strong swimmers and fishermen. At times, when excited by the morning coolness and by the prospect of a good haul, they indulge in a manner of merriment which resembles the gambols of sportive water fowls.
"Standing upright and balancing themselves in their hollow logs, which appear but little larger than themselves, they strike the water furiously with their paddles, skimming over the surface, dashing to and fro, splashing one another, urging forward, backing, and wheeling their craft, now capsizing, then regaining their position with wonderful dexterity.
"They make coarse hooks, and have many varieties of nets and creels. Conspicuous on the waters and the villages is the dewa, or otter of Oman, a triangle of stout reeds, which shows the position of the net. A stronger kind, and used for the larger ground fish, is a cage of open basket work, provided like the former with a bait and two entrances. The fish, once entangled, cannot escape, and a log of wood used as a trimmer, attached to a float-rope of rushy reeds, directs the fisherman."
The results of Burton's trip up and down the lake, owing to the obstinacy of the native guides, were not very important. The shores of the lake he found to be very muddy, and the landscape bright and green with vegetation. The inhospitable natives, although favored with every blessing of so luxuriant a climate, were ignorant and barbarous.
Tanganyika is probably the longest fresh water lake in the world. It occupies an area of nearly thirteen thousand square miles, and has a coast line of nine hundred miles in extent.