Page:Central African Mission.djvu/15

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Mission Work on the Mainland.
11

smaller ones lie on the road to them. A Nyamwezi vocabulary has been collected in case it should be determined to make a bold plunge towards the central tribes. At present, however, a war of very uncertain result is going on between the native Nyamwezi and the Arab and Swahili settlers in their country, and nothing could be reasonably attempted until that war has been concluded. Indeed, the road to Ujiji is practically closed to any but special expeditions.

South of the Zagaras, the Grindos or Grendwas, and below them the Portuguese coast begins. Among the Gindos, not far from Lindy, between Kilwa and the Hovuma, a body of Yaos have settled, and are giving the coast people much trouble by receiving runaway slaves, and occasionally plundering the coast traders. Behind the Grindos, between them and the Lake Nyassa, lie the Yao, and beyond it the Nyassas and the Bisas. I mention only the most important tribes, and that by their usual names. The Yaos are the Achawa of our earlier reports, and the Manganja were Nyassas.

It is in this direction that our work ought most naturally to develope itself, and Bishop Tozer has always contemplated a journey to the Lake Nyassa. The great hindrance has been the devastation of the country by the Maviti, probably the Mazitu of Dr. Livingstone's earlier books. They have swept the country up to Kilwa, plundering and murdering everywhere. Their chief seats are said now to