I30 Seven Years in the Sotidan.

CHAPTER XVI.

CIRCUMNAVIGATION COMPLETED.

Natives of Unyoro — Killin an enormous hippopotamus — Great feast — Thunderstorm — Floating island — Southern extremit\' of the lake — Marshes — High mountains in view to the south — Hostility of the natives — Failure to land — Village among the marshes — Mount Modrog — Navigation to the north — Rapid voyage — Volume of water in the Nile — Width of the lake — Population — Little shelter — Ivory — Climate — -In the Nile — Arrival at Dufile — The exploration of Coja or Kapcki Lake by Carlo Piaggia.

The river ended at the foot of the cascade. I directed my course, in order to observe it better, towards a little village on the left bank, but the inhabitants would not speak to us, nor would they ajproach us. Seeing every attempt of mine to disarm their distrust to be in vain, I gave orders to moor the boat in front of the village. I did not wish to leave the place before I had exhausted every means of trying to speak with the people ; by mooring and remaining quiet I wished to give them time to recover from their first astonishment. I had just taken pencil in hand to resume the notes of my travelling journal, when the sailors called to me and showed me a great hippopotamus, who, with his head out of the water, was swimming towards the shore a hundred steps beyond the village. I fired at him and he fell, struck on the forehead.

The crew and the soldiers dragged him to land, and the natives, eager to have a share, ventured