VOYAGE TO KAGEI AND SHIPWRECK. 245 Daisy far from being completed, and it was not till October 22nd that we were able to launch her.

During the whole of our stay in this place we were on the best possible terms with the natives, crowds of whom used to come down every day to watch us at work and express their astonishment at the various appliances we employed. We had on board a portable forge, lathe, grindstone, and blacksmith's anvil, and these we fitted up. They were in daily requisition, and were an unfailing source of wonder to the Wazongora, whose constant exclamation was " Choma ! choma ! " (" Iron ! iron ! ") the ease with which we worked that metal seeming especially to excite their admiration. We had quantities of copper wire, nails, and other things which excite the cupidity of the negro, lying in our tent, yet, to the credit of these natives be it said, nothing was stolen during the whole of our stay amongst them.

We had, of course, been quite unprepared for such a long delay on our journey, and had with us very little of the barter goods necessary for purchasing food, and often had great difficulty in devising means whereby to procure provisions ; but we cut up an old sail, which we exchanged for bananas, and once were able to purchase some cowries, from some passing Waganda, for fine calico.

Wild geese frequented the shores of the Bay of Makongo, and a good many of them fell to our guns,